GROVER CLEVELAND 

THE MAN AND THE STATESMAN 

VOLUME ONE 



GROVER CLEVELAND 

1903 



GROVER CLEVELAND 

THE MAN AND THE STATESMAN 

An Authorized Biography 



BY 

ROBERT Mcelroy, ph.d., ll.d., f.r.h.s. 

EDWARDS PROFESSOR OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY 




VOLUME 
I 



0' 

HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS 

NEW YORK AND LONDON 

MCMXXIII 



.Ml*/- 



GROVER CLEVELAND 

THE MAN AND THE STATESMAN 

Copyright, 1923 
By Harper & Brothers 
Printed in the U. S. A. 

First Edition 

K-X 






To 

My Wife 
whose vermilion pencil deprived 
the world of my noblest sentences 



CONTENTS 
VOLUME I 

CHAPTER PACK 

I Heredity and Environment i 

II The Veto Mayor 24 

III The Reform Governor 37 

IV The Mugwump Campaign of 1884 72 

V Alone in the White House 100 

VI Facing the Political Bread-Line 117 

VII The Independence of the Executive .... 166 

VIII Cleveland and the Veterans of the Civil War . 189 

IX Cleveland and the Wards of the Nation, the 

American Indians 218 

X Cleveland, Bismarck, and Samoa 24,0 

XI Throwing Away the Presidency 264 

XII Retires to New York 302 

XIII An Unprecedented Restoration 324 



INTRODUCTION 

We have been told recently that there are too many 
biographies. The complaint indicates a sense of com- 
pulsion to read them. This can come only from a belief 
that they probably contain something which ought not to 
be overlooked. The real ground of the condemnation, 
therefore, is not that biographies are not worth reading, 
but that they ought to be read and that they therefore 
impose additional obligations upon men who may perhaps 
feel overburdened. The condemnation thus becomes a 
justification. 

The most obvious appeal of a biography to the gen- 
erations which have direct or close I^nowledge of the man 
written about; which have knowledge of the things he 
has done, of the affairs in which he has played part, of 
the men with or against whom he has worked — is really a 
very narrow and minor function of biography. The more 
important function is as an effective mode of presenting 
history for the benefit of the future, which has to get its 
knowledge entirely from books or traditions. Biography, 
makes a period interesting by throwing a high light on 
a central figure and establishing a relation between all 
the conditions and incidents of the time with that figure. 
If only one of the significant figures of a period were 
made the subject of biography there would be an effect 
of disproportion due to overemphasis. But that is sel- 
dom if ever the case. Men worth writing about are 
naturally grouped in periods. Their biographies repro- 
duce the same background with different emphasis. On 



INTRODUCTION 

looking at the period from all these different points of 
view taken together, we see life in the round standing out 
from the canvas, with a quality of human interest which 
it seems quite impossible for any impartial historian to 
create. Of course there must be balance. If you read 
Morley's Gladstone you must read Moneypenny's Dis- 
raeli and the rest of the great Victorian biographies. If 
you read the life of Jefferson you must also read the lives 
of Hamilton, and of Marshall and of Adams. If you 
read Cavour you must also read Garibaldi and Maz- 
zini. The important question is not whether there are 
too many or too few biographies, but whether the biog- 
raphy of an important period in the world's life is well 
balanced, whether all the personal points of view, from 
which enlightenment and correction may come, are ade- 
quately represented, so that the aggregate biographies of 
a period as a whole will convey a correct as well as an 
interesting conception. 

The biography of Grover Cleveland, which Professor 
McElroy has now completed with great labor and sym- 
pathy, is of special importance to the understanding of a 
very critical period in American history — the period of 
readjustment to the new conditions created by the Civil 
War. The readjustment involved, not merely a recovery 
from the enormous losses of the war which included the 
entire abolition of property in slaves, but also the great 
reconciliation between the peoples of the two sections, 
who, after four years of fighting, of killing and wounding 
each other, were to try the experiment of living together 
again as parts of the same people sharing in the conduct 
of the same government. It was a reconciliation which 
had to be effected by the same generation which fought 
the war, because if that generation died unreconciled, be- 
queathing its resentments and hatreds to a younger gen- 



INTRODUCTION 

eration, the undertaking would have been almost hope- 
less. Inherited hatreds are almost ineradicable. That 
the reconciliation was effected within the life of that gen- 
eration and that survivors of the Union and Confederate 
Armies came to work together with harmony and mutual 
confidence in the government at Washington, is one of 
the greatest of American achievements. It was not an 
easy process but it was aided by two reactions in the sober 
sense of the North. One, the reaction against the grave 
error of reconstruction legislation which went upon the 
theory that by merely giving a vote to the negro he would 
be made competent to govern. The North became rather 
ashamed of the exercise of power which inflicted real in- 
justice upon the people of the South by the application 
of this false theory. The other reaction, also in the 
dominant North, was against the undue use made by 
political managers for personal and organization pur- 
poses, of the old spirit and memories and shibboleths of 
the war. For the first twenty years after the war these 
feelings served to control in the selection of the members 
of government at Washington. But as the dominant 
political organization during this long lease of power be- 
came more compact and autocratic great numbers of 
people in the North who sympathized with the war feel- 
ing became quite unwilling that it should be utilized for 
the benefit of a political organization in which they had 
no practical voice. Under these circumstances the Demo- 
cratic party, which could not hope to secure control in 
the nation except by Southern votes, was fortunate enough 
to find in Mr. Cleveland a man of such a strong person- 
ality and such clearly demonstrated capacity upon lines 
quite outside of the old Civil War contest, that his nomi- 
nation for the Presidency would divide the Northern vote. 
As we look back forty years we can see that it was 



INTRODUCTION 

time for new motives to assert themselves in American 
politics. There could not be a real reunion of States in 
patriotic sympathy without moral as well as legal am- 
nesty, without really letting bygones be bygones. So long 
as the control of government turned upon the sympathies 
and resentments of the Civil War it was inevitable that 
there should be a sense of proscription by the defeated 
party which revived bitter feelings upon both sides in 
every election. The only way in which a change could 
come was by making the control of government turn upon 
the new issues which the developing life of the country 
was bringing on and which did not depend at all upon 
the old Civil War divisions. There is a certain satis- 
faction in considering how perfectly Mr. Cleveland was 
adapted to the requirements of that situation. He was a 
Northerner and a Democrat, and so available. He was 
a party man without answering to the ordinary conception 
of a politician. He belonged to a party as a natural in- 
cident to the business of citizenship. He inherited tradi- 
tions from the earlier days, not so very far remote, when 
it was considered every man's business to do his part 
towards maintaining the peace and order of the com- 
munity. He accepted that as a part of a normal Ameri- 
can life; but he never was a political leader in a personal 
sense and he never tried to be. He never tried to collect 
about himself any group of followers who would promote 
his fortunes in the expectation that he would promote 
theirs. As an incident in the career of a young lawyer 
he came to be appointed Assistant District Attorney in 
Buffalo and in that subordinate office he exhibited qual- 
ities which led after a time to his being made sheriff, and 
then mayor of Buffalo, and then governor of the State of 
New York. He had strong common sense, simplicity 
and directness without subtlety, instinctive and immov- 



INTRODUCTION 

able integrity, perfect courage, a kindly nature with great 
capacity for friendship and with great capacity also for 
wrath which made him a dangerous man to trifle with. 
There was nothing visionary or fanatical about him, but 
he had a natural hatred for fraud and false pretense, and 
a strong instinct for detecting the essential quality of con- 
duct by the application of old and simple tests of morality. 
There was no self-seeking about him. In all his public 
employments he thought about his job and not about him- 
self. His official judgment was never disturbed by any 
question as to the effect upon his personal fortunes. He 
had an exceptionally good mind; a still more exception- 
ally rugged strength of character; altogether a powerful 
and attractive personality. When the Presidential nomi- 
nations of 1884 came to be made Grover Cleveland in his 
various offices had done more of the honest and cour- 
ageous things which good government requires and which 
decent people like to have done, than any other Democrat. 
That made him the available candidate to change the 
current of American politics. His election upon that 
record practically closed the old era of politics dominated 
by the past and began the new era of politics looking to 
the future. The strength and courage of his administra- 
tions as President confirmed the new departure. No 
thoughtful and patriotic American, to whatever party he 
may belong, and however much his opinions may differ 
from those of Mr. Cleveland, can read the story of those 
administrations without admiration and sympathy, or 
without a sense of satisfaction that his country can on 
occasion produce and honor such a man as Grover 
Cleveland. 

Elihu Root. 



GROVER CLEVELAND 

THE MAN AND THE STATESMAN 



GROVER CLEVELAND 

CHAPTER I 

HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT 

"// a man were permitted to make all the homes, he neeu 
not care who should make the laws of a nation." 

— Grover Cleveland. 

THE task of the historian is to separate truth from the 
propaganda of the past, and in the case of a biog- 
raphy this task is often rendered most difficult by the 
attempts of the subject to prepare his biographer's way 
before him. But Grover Cleveland made no such at- 
tempt. His mind was occupied with present duties, not 
future fame, and he was content to allow the muse of 
history to write her verdict without his personal aid. As 
a result we have neither autobiography nor personal 
memoir to guide or to misguide us. What we know of 
Grover Cleveland, the man, has been gathered almost 
wholly from his contemporaries, and from casual refer- 
ences in letters and speeches written with no thought of 
the verdict of history. What we know of Grover Cleve- 
land, the statesman, has been culled from documents 
equally guiltless of propaganda. For, although in later 
life he published a number of monographs dealing with 
important incidents in his presidential career, they are, 
one and all, as impersonal as a presidential message or an 
executive order; and this is the more remarkable in a 
man who passed into history before he passed into silence. 



2 GROVER CLEVELAND 

According to certain genealogical tables which Dr. 
David Starr Jordan has examined and accepted, 
Grover Cleveland, George Washington, King Henry V 
of England, Theodore Roosevelt, Robert E. Lee, Henry- 
Adams, Jonathan Edwards, Ulysses S. Grant, Benjamin 
Harrison, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, J. Pier- 
pont Morgan, and John D. Rockefeller were descended 
from a common ancestry, "each showing one of the many 
'direct lines' leading down from Isabel de Vermandois," 
who died in 1 131. 

Although interesting, this appears of little real signifi- 
cance, since, as the same authority points out, every 
person now living would find, should he count back, that, 
allowing three generations to a century, he has had more 
than one hundred and thirty-four million ancestors 
since the year iioo, and more than twice that number if 
he counted "intervening forbears." 

But genealogical studies had little interest for Mr. 
Cleveland. His indifference to his personal history was 
equaled by his lack of interest in his family history; and 
it is due solely to the efforts of others that in England we 
can trace his family line to the Norman conquest and 
beyond, while in this country we follow it through 
all the generations which make up the history of the 
American people since 1635, when Moses Cleveland 
landed in Massachusetts, an indented apprentice from 
Ipswich. 

The name Cleveland is of Saxon origin. The estate 
or the district Cleveland, near the historic town of 
Whitby, was so called "because of the clefts or cleaves 
which abounded there." In early days the name was 
spelled Cliveland, Clyveland, Clievland, Cleivland, 
Cleaveland, Clevland, Cleveland, Cleffland, Clifland, or 
in other ways, if others be possible, according to the 



HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT 3 

fancy of the writer. Such liberties were taken with all 
names in those happy days of phonetic freedom. But 
Cleveland or Clyveland, Cliveland or Clifland, every 
line of the family runs back to England. The genealog- 
ical tree is a veritable English oak, with no branch 
grafted from the Continent. 

Starting with Moses, born in 1624, the American 
branch very properly passes to Aaron, and for four con- 
secutive generations the oldest son bears the latter name. 
In 1770, however, William Cleveland appeared to break 
the succession, and his son, Richard Falley Cleveland, 
was Grover Cleveland's father. 

Richard Falley Cleveland was born at Norwich, Con- 
necticut, June 19, 1804. He received his college train- 
ing at Yale, where he took high honors as of the class of 
1824. Soon after graduation, his aim being the Pres- 
byterian ministry, he accepted a post as tutor in Balti- 
more, where he began his theological studies and at the 
same time earned enough money to make possible a few 
months in the Princeton Theological Seminary. In 1828, 
he was ordained, and accepted the pastorate of the First 
Congregational Church at Windham, Connecticut. He 
had, however, left his heart in Baltimore, and in 1829 
he returned to recover it, and with it her in whose keep- 
ing he had left it, the gentle Ann Neal. 

Ann Neal, the mother of Cleveland, has left few traces 
to aid the biographer eager to do her justice. We know 
that she was of Irish and French descent, that her father 
was a publisher of law books in Baltimore, and that she 
was born in that city on February 4, 1806; but beyond 
that we know little except that love came early into her 
life in the handsome person of Richard Cleveland, and 
that her devotion stood the test of time, changing con- 
ditions, and an always scanty income. A country clergy- 



4 GROVER CLEVELAND 

man's life in those days meant constant sacrifice, and 
Ann Neal's sacrifice began when as a bride she returned 
with her husband to Windham where, in conformity 
to prevailing local standards, she willingly gave up 
many innocent enjoyments that the minister's influence 
might not be jeopardized, or the cause they both loved 
weakened. 

When Ann left her father's house, her colored maid, 
who had cared for her from infancy, begged to be allowed 
to accompany her. Thus attended, and rejoicing in many 
bright articles of personal adornment, she entered the 
New England manse only to find that colored maids were 
regarded as unnecessary luxuries, and objectionable, as 
savoring of slavery. She soon understood also that 
jewelry was unbecoming a minister's wife. So the faith- 
ful servant was cheerfully returned to her Southern home, 
the treasured little ornaments were laid aside without a 
sigh, and the bright heart of Ann Neal Cleveland beat 
under costumes suitable to the wife of a village minister 
of New England. But the young couple were poor only 
in goods. They had education, culture, congeniality, and 
spiritual wealth — resources sufficient to encourage hope 
of a happy future. 

The young wife was not long called upon to walk in 
the ways of the Puritan. In 1833 the field of their joint 
labors was transferred to the more familiar atmosphere 
of Portsmouth, Virginia; and two years later they settled 
down to the seven years of Richard Cleveland's pastorate 
at Caldwell, New Jersey. 

The Cleveland family had grown since the days in 
Windham. Two children, Anna, and William Neal, 
had been born in Connecticut, Mary Allen during the 
brief pastorate at Portsmouth, and Richard Cecil almost 
as soon as the trunks were unpacked in the little manse 



HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT 5 

at Caldwell. Less than two years later, on March i8, 
1837, the fifth child was born, and they called him 
Stephen Grover in honor of the late pastor, whose service 
at Caldwell had lasted almost half a century, and whose 
name was there greatly beloved. 

In 1 841 Reverend Richard Cleveland accepted a call 
as pastor of a church in Fayetteville, New York, and to 
Fayetteville, with the others, went the young Grover, 
traveling the way of the patient, on an Erie Canal boat, 
which in those days was a method so slow that the Cleve- 
lands were weeks on the journey. Fayetteville, in 1841, 
was a quiet village, with a good academy, which served 
the older Cleveland children both as educational and 
social center. But there were no kindergartens in those 
days and the education of Grover, the four-year-old, had 
to wait. His training, however, did not wait. Filial 
reverence, strict obedience, unquestioning belief in pa- 
rental wisdom, and ready compliance with parental com- 
mands were the presuppositions of life, according to the 
Puritan creed which dominated the family. "Often and 
often as a boy," he declared in later years, "I was com- 
pelled to get out of my warm bed at night, to hang up a 
hat or other garment which I had left on the floor." 

The commands of the Bible, the memorizing of the 
Westminster Catechism, the strictest observance of Sun- 
day as the Puritan had understood it, were the elements 
upon which the character of Grover Cleveland were 
built. Father, mother, and nine children were all sup- 
ported by the minister's salary, which seldom exceeded 
six hundred dollars a year. 

Under such conditions, simple, cultivated, religious, 
Grover Cleveland passed the most formative years of his 
life. With the help of the academy and of his intelligent 
and well-trained father, he acquired a reasonable pro- 



6 GROVER CLEVELAND 

ficiency in Latin and mathematics, and an interest in 
religious questions which lasted throughout his life. 

In the home of his childhood vexed questions such 
as Sabbath observance were not debated. Each child 
understood that six days were made for work and play, 
and one for worship. When the long shadows began to 
fall on Sabbath eve, playthings were put away, clothes 
carefully arranged for use on the morrow, an early supper 
was prepared, in order that there might be ample time 
for the weekly bath, at which the elder sisters assisted 
with conscientious thoroughness. For clean hands as 
well as a pure heart were considered appropriate accom- 
paniments of the day of rest. 

While the steaming tubs were playing their part on 
one side of the kitchen, the one servant, a self-respecting 
Canadian woman, was preparing the material for Sunday 
dinner on the other. A peck of potatoes, the roast, the 
rice pudding with its spices and raisins, all had to be got 
ready on Saturday. 

When the little Clevelands, with ears shining and at 
times with hearts resentful at the memory of too vigorous 
gouging, had been tucked into bed, the elder members of 
the family retired to the church to practice hymns for 
the service of the morrow. Sunday was itself a discipline 
— two sermons a day, with Sunday school between, and 
a prayer meeting in the evening which, on the first Sunday 
of each month, took the form of a missionary lecture and 
always closed with the singing of the hymn, "From Green- 
land's Icy Mountains." 

With the end of afternoon service, the strain of piety 
was a little lightened, and the family assembled for a 
substantial meal at three-thirty. A walk in the garden 
or in the orchard beyond the house followed, and at twi- 
light the pastor met his family for an hour of private 



HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT 7 

worship. Then the little ones were sent to bed, while 
their elders returned to the church for an evening meeting. 

Such was the atmosphere in which Grover Cleveland 
passed his childhood. It inevitably tended to produce a 
keen sense of personal responsibility, to make trustworthy 
character; for its ethical basis was absolute. It taught 
that there is a right which is eternally right, and a wrong 
which must remain forever wrong. 

To one of Mr. Cleveland's sisters we are indebted for 
the following memory which shows how early the sense 
of responsibility was developed in the boy: *'It was a 
very busy day and the last baby was more than usually 
troublesome. Grover was pressed into service as baby- 
tender, and encouraged to believe that sleep would soon 
end his task. The vision of a little round-faced, blue-eyed 
boy rocking a cradle, with a far-away look out of the 
window where the 'fellers' were sliding down the hill, 
is very clear in my memory. His heart was with the boys, 
but his hand steadily kept the cradle in motion. 

''The wide-open eyes of the infant were met by Grover 
with an hypnotic stare, as he monotonously droned out 
the refrain, ' 'T is a sin to steal a pin, and how much more 
a greater thing.' He tried all keys and all modulations; 
but the baby smile persisted, and the baby eyes watched 
every motion with a sleepless interest. 

"Convinced at last that the combined concert and pan- 
tomime were too exciting, Grover changed his tactics. He 
suddenly disappeared beneath the cradle, hushed his lulla- 
by, and moved the rockers, slowly and quietly, back and 
forth, from his unseen position. After a few moments, 
he rose stealthily, and peered cautiously over the side of 
the cradle, only to be greeted by that same baby smile, 
and those wide-open baby eyes. Then, with a despair- 
ing glance out of the window toward the hill where the 



8 GROVER CLEVELAND 

'fellers' slid, and with tears in his blue eyes, Grover 
Cleveland dropped resignedly to the floor again, and 
resumed his monotonous rocking. There he lay, listening, 
sobbing and doing his duty, until relieved by an older 
sister who came to the rescue." 

Alvah Woodworth, once proprietor of the iron 
foundry at Manlius, New York, has left us the story of 
how Grover Cleveland and the Bangs boys prepared to 
hail a certain glorious fourth of July. They had gathered 
a little wagon-load of old iron and brought it to Wood- 
worth to be melted and molded into a cannon. 

"Puffing and perspiring," he says, "they toiled along, 
one boy between the shafts, pulling, and the other two 
back of the wagon, pushing. When they had arrived op- 
posite the village foundry, they halted. One of the boys — 
he was the youngest and shortest of the trio — then made 
it known . . . that they desired to exchange their load 
of old iron in return for a small cannon, which the pro- 
prietor was to make for them in time to use in their 
fourth of July celebration. 

"The foundryman weighed up the iron and found 
that there was not a sufficient quantity to pay for the job. 
This rather staggered the boys for a moment, but their 
spokesman [Grover Cleveland], who seemed to be a lad 
of resources, soon found a way out of the difficulty. His 
proposition was that the foundryman should go ahead 
and make the cannon, and after the arduous work of the 
fourth was disposed of he and his fellow patriots would 
drag up another load of iron to square up accounts. The 
proprietor of the foundry looked the boys over keenly 
and decided he could trust them. So the cannon was 
made and used and, true to their word, the boys delivered 
to the foundryman a second load of old iron as payment 
for the balance they owed him." 



HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT 9 

That this was done promptly we can infer from Gro- 
ver's appreciation of the value of time, as shown by an 
essay which he wrote at the age of nine : 

Fayetteville Academy Sept. S, 1846. 
Time. 
Time is divided into seconds — minutes, hours, days, 
weeks month years and centurys. If we expect to become 
great and good men and be respected and esteemed by 
our friends we must inprove our time when we are young. 
George Washington inproved his time when he was a 
boy and he was not sorry when he was at the head of a 
large army fighting for his country. A great meny of 
our great men wer poor and had smal means of obtaining 
an education but by improving their time when they were 
young and in school they obtained their high standing 
Jackson was a poor boy but he was placed in school and 
by improving his time he found himself a president of 
the United States guiding and directing a powerful nation. 
If we wish to become great and usful in the world we 
must improve our time in school. 

S. G. Cleveland. 

That the atmosphere of Fayetteville did not always 
breed progressive and enlightened citizens is abundantly 
demonstrated by a letter which President Cleveland re- 
ceived, two years after he entered the White House : 

March 22, 1887, 
Grover Cleveland 
Washington 
DC 
Dear Grover 

Hank Stebbins told me the other day that you was 
elected president I just couldnt believe it — I often won- 



10 GROVER CLEVELAND 

derd whare you was — I haint herd of you for years . . . 
I have got a good job . . . here but I would like to live in 
Washington — Can you give me a job there for the sake 
of old times — Sallie Hornakers is dead had a rising. 
Please rite to your old friend and schoolmate. 

For nine years Richard Cleveland served the people 
of Fayetteville as pastor. Then his health began to fail, 
and the strain of sustaining so large a family upon so 
meager a salary was heavy. When, therefore, the Amer- 
ican Home Missionary Society offered him an agency 
with a salary of $1000 a year, he accepted the appoint- 
ment, which involved a change of residence to Clinton, 
N. Y. The move was made in 1 85 1 , when Stephen Grover 
was fourteen years of age, but he always remembered 
with pleasure those youthful days at Fayetteville. In 
after years, as President of the United States, he returned 
for a flying visit, and his brief speech is one of the few 
autobiographical touches that he left among his papers. 

"As I find myself once more in this pretty village," 
he said, "the sports and pastimes of my youth come back 
to my mind. I take warm interest in being with you once 
more. Some of you more than forty years ago were 
my schoolfellows and playmates. I can recall the faces 
of some that are now no more. 

"I have been reminded to-day by an old resident of 
the many deaths which occurred among those I knew 
since I took my departure from you, and I was astonished 
to find that I could remember so many of the old names 
in di-iving from the foot of the street to the parsonage 
and the academy. There were Cobb, Parker, Gillett, 
McVicker, Worden, Palmer, Horner, Edwards, Noble, 
Deacon Flint, and many others. I recall old Green Lake 
and the fish I tried to catch and never did, and the tra- 



HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT II 

ditional panther on its shores which used to shorten my 
excursions thitherward. I've heard so much howling in 
the past two years that I don't think I should be frightened 
by the panther now. 

"If some of the old householders were here I could 
tell them who it was that used to take ofif their front gates. 
I mention this because I have been accused of so many 
worse crimes since I have been in Washington that I con- 
sider taking ofif gates something of a virtue. 

"I would be sadly at fault if I failed to recall the 
many inestimable benefits I received at your hands — my 
early education, the training of the Sunday school, the 
religious advantages, the advantages of your social life. 
These are things which have gone with me in every step 
in life. And so, when in short intervals of freedom from 
the cares and duties of my office, my mind revels in re- 
trospection, these early recollections are the truest, pleas- 
antest, and brightest spots on which my memory lights. 

"And so, you see, I have taken you and your village 
with me, and whether you are willing or not, I have made 
you a part of this administration. I have been a sad 
truant, but, now that you have seen me, keep your eyes 
ever upon me as I strive to do my duty in behalf of the 
people of this country. And it shall be my desire so to 
act that I may receive the approbation of these, my oldest 
and best friends." 

At Clinton the Cleveland children enjoyed educa- 
tional advantages far superior to those of Fayetteville, and 
the atmosphere of Hamilton College fostered in Grover 
the ambition already created by the influence of a 
scholarly father and a mother wise enough to understand 
the supreme advantages of a thorough intellectual train- 
ing. But his brief sojourn here failed to develop in him 
any unusual scholarly gifts. As a student he did not shine. 



12 GROVER CLEVELAND 

The wonderful powers of application and concentration 
which later distinguished him were not yet apparent. He 
made friends more effectively than grades, and his friend- 
ships lasted. 

He has himself left us an account of his Clinton days : 

"It was here, in the school at the foot of College Hill, 
that I began my preparation for college life and enjoyed 
the anticipation of a collegiate education. We had two 
teachers in our school. One became afterward a judge 
in Chicago, and the other passed through the legal pro- 
fession to the ministry, and within the last two years was 
living farther West. 

"I read a little Latin with two other boys in the class. 
I think I floundered through four books of the iEneid. 
The other boys had nice large modern editions of Virgil, 
with big print and plenty of notes to help one over the 
hard places. Mine was a little old-fashioned copy which 
my father used before me, with no notes, and which was 
only translated by hard knocks. I believe I have for- 
given those other boys for their persistent refusal to allow 
me the use of the notes in their books. At any rate, they 
do not seem to have been overtaken by any dire retribu- 
tion, for one of them is now a rich and prosperous lawyer 
in Buffalo, and the other is a professor in your college and 
the orator of to-day's celebration. The struggles with ten 
lines of Virgil, which at first made up my daily task, 
are amusing as remembered now; but with them I am also 
forced to remember, that, instead of being the beginning 
of the higher education for which I honestly longed, 
they occurred near the end of my school advantages. 
This suggests a disappointment which no lapse of time 
can alleviate, and a deprivation I have sadly felt with 
every passing year. . . . 

"I don't know that I should indulge further recollec- 



HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT 1 3 

tions that must seem very little like centennial history; 
but I want to establish as well as I can my right to be 
here. I might speak of the college faculty, who cast such 
a pleasing though sober shade of dignity over the place, 
and who, with other educated and substantial citizens, 
made up the best of social life. I was a boy then, and 
slightly felt the atmosphere of this condition; but, not- 
withstanding, I believe I absorbed a lasting appreciation 
of the intelligence and refinement which made this a de- 
lightful home. 

"I know that you will bear with me, my friends, if I 
yield to the impulse which the mention of home creates, 
and speak of my own home here, and how through the 
memories which cluster about it I may claim a tender 
relationship to your village. Here it was that our family 
circle entire, parents and children, lived day after day in 
loving and affectionate converse; and here, for the last 
time, we met around the family altar and thanked God 
that our household was unbroken by death or separation. 
We never met together in any other home after leaving 
this, and Death followed closely our departure. 

"And thus it is that, as with advancing years I survey 
the havoc Death has made, and as the thoughts of my 
early home become more sacred, the remembrance of this 
pleasant spot, so related, is revived and chastened." 

Hamilton College was the Mecca of his dreams. His 
brother, William, was already nearing the end of his 
course, and Grover's turn was soon to come. But necessity 
is a stern master, and at this point it took control. The 
imperative need of relief for the hard-pressed family 
treasury sent Grover back to Fayetteville to work in a 
village store. Here he made himself useful in various 
ways, receiving in return a salary of fifty dollars for the 



14 GROVER CLEVELAND 

first year, and one hundred for the second, with board and 
lodging furnished without charge. 

Life in a western New York village in those days 
partook somewhat of the conditions of the frontier. Com- 
forts were few, and of these still fewer fell to the lot of 
John McVicar's clerks. But the boys gave little thought 
to their physical surroundings. From the pen of his fel- 
low clerk, F. G. Tibbitts, we have this picture of their 
daily life: 

^'It was our duty to wait on customers, sweep and 
clean up, open and close the place, run errands, and do 
a turn for neighbors at odd times. . . . Our room was 
. . . a large, unfurnished room. The bed was a plain, 
pine one, with cords upon which to lay the tick. ... In 
that room, without carpet, without wall paper, without 
pictures, bare, drear, and desolate, we two lived together 
one whole year. In the winter we fairly froze sometimes. 
There was no stove in the room, heat coming up from a 
pipe leading from the store below. . . . Grover used to 
rise, in those days, at about five o'clock in the summer 
and half-past five in the winter. He would go out to an 
old green pump that then stood in the square, used for 
watering horses, and make his morning toilet in the 
trough; then back to the store; open up; sweep out; build 
the fire; dust up; lay out the goods. By and by, about 
seven o'clock, along would come Mr. McVicar." 

At the end of two years Grover returned to Clinton 
to continue his preparation for entering college; but his 
plans were soon again swept aside by the ruthless hand 
of fate. His father, whose health was still failing, shortly 
resigned his too arduous post at Clinton to accept a rural 
pastorate at Holland Patent, near Utica. 

The move was made in the autumn of 1853, the last 
earthly autumn for that devoted servant of God. Three 



HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT 1 5 

Sundays he preached to his new congregation, and then 
death came suddenly. He was only forty-nine, poor in 
the goods of this world, but rich in a record of noble and 
unselfish service. 

The tidings reached Grover through the voice of a 
newsboy crying papers in the street. He had driven to 
Utica with his sister, Mary, who was preparing for her 
wedding to Mr. M. E. Hoyt, and wished to make some 
purchases. As he sat in the carriage waiting, the cry 
reached him. His father had died only a few moments 
after his departure from Holland Patent. 

This sudden and untimely death changed Grover's 
entire outlook. He was now sixteen years old, and abun- 
dantly supplied with brothers and sisters. Otherwise, he 
had inherited only the world to live in, and immediate 
self-support was imperative. He therefore sought a posi- 
tion and soon found one in the New York Institute for 
the Blind. But a single year having convinced him that 
such a life was not for him, he returned to Holland 
Patent, and patiently canvassed the neighborhood for 
employment with a future. 

Disappointment followed. There seemed no satisfac- 
tory opening in that general region, and reluctantly he 
was forced to consider some other locality. In those days 
the trade winds blew steadily in one direction for young 
men of ambition and scant means, and Grover at last de- 
cided to go West. His earnings had been generously 
placed in the family sinking fund, which had sunk so low 
that he was compelled to borrow twenty-five dollars to 
pay the expense of his intended journey. For this he 
gave a personal note, promising to pay when convenient. 
Twelve years later he sent to his benefactor the follow- 
ing letter : 



1 6 grover cleveland 

My dear Mr. Townsend : 

I am now in condition to pay my note which you hold 
given for money borrowed some years ago. I suppose I 
might have paid it long before, but I have never thought 
you were in need of it, and I had other purposes for my 
money. I have forgotten the date of the note. If you 
will send me it I will mail you the principal and interest. 
The loan you made me was my start in life, and I shall 
always preserve the note as an interesting reminder of 
your kindness. Let me hear from you soon. With many 
kind wishes to Mrs. Townsend and your family, I am 
yours, very respectfully, 

Grover Cleveland. 

The town of Cleveland, Ohio, was his intended des- 
tination, the name, given in honor of his kinsman. General 
Moses Cleveland, seeming to him a good omen. But at 
Buffalo fate again intervened, this time in the person 
of his uncle, Lewis Allen, a well-known shorthorn cattle 
breeder, whose home was at Black Rock, on the outskirts 
of the city. Having stopped here for a brief visit, the 
traveler was persuaded to accept an offer of work on 
Mr. Allen's herd book, which netted him sixty dollars 
in cash, and deprived Ohio of another President of the 
United States; for Buffalo became henceforth his home. 

His life in the Allen household was pleasant, even 
luxurious, and his earnings sufficient for his personal 
needs. But, although circumstances had forced him to 
abandon all idea of a college training, he was still re- 
solved, with a resolution singularly like the law of the 
Medes and Persians "which altereth not," to study law. 

Mr. Allen easily secured for him a clerkship in the 
firm of Rogers, Bowen and Rogers, whose senior member 
had a very simple theory of education: "If a boy has 



HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT 17 

brains he will find out for himself without any telling." 
Grover Cleveland was accordingly given a table, a shelf 
of law books, and permission to study law, in so far as that 
occupation did not interfere with his clerical duties. 

His own account of his persistent struggle for educa- 
tion is characteristically direct and impersonal: 

"I know a young man who, when quite young, deter- 
mined to acquire a college education and enter the legal 
profession. 

"The door to a college education was inexorably closed 
against him. 

"He at once set his heart on studying law without col- 
legiate training. When it soon appeared that even this 
must be postponed, he quite cheerfully set about finding 
any kind of honest work. 

"After an unsuccessful quest for employment near 
home, he started for the West. He had adversity in 
abundance. 

"He had plenty of willingness to work, plenty of 
faith and a fair stock of perseverance in reserve. He had 
no misgivings. 

"After securing a temporary job, he was handed 
Blackstone's Commentaries and turned loose to browse 
in the library of a law office. 

"When, on the first day of his study, all the partners 
and clerks forgot he was in a corner of the library and 
locked him in during the dinner hour he merely said 
to himself, 'Some day I will be better remembered.' 

"He actually enjoyed his adversities. 

"Even then he was called stubborn. After he had 
become President of the United States he was still called 
stubborn, and he is accused of stubbornness to this very 
day." 

His independence of character, to use a somewhat 



1 8 GROVER CLEVELAND 

milder term, was conspicuously displayed in 1856, in 
connection with the first Presidential candidate upon the 
ticket called Republican by its friends, and black Re- 
publican by its enemies. Grover's host and relative, who 
had been a Whig, became Chairman of the Republican 
County Committee; but his young kinsman chose the 
Democratic party because, as he later explained, it seemed 
to him to represent greater solidarity and conservatism. 
He was repelled by the Fremont candidacy, which struck 
him as "having a good deal of fuss and feathers about it." 

Being only nineteen years of age, he could not vote, 
but he could work. And so began the record of party 
service which characterized him throughout life, save 
when, as President, he turned aside from party to become 
the representative of all the people. 

Four years of study prepared him for admission to 
the New York bar and four years more he remained with 
the firm of Rogers, Bowen, and Rogers as managing 
clerk. This congenial post he vacated in 1863, to accept 
a call to public service, his colleagues of the Buffalo bar 
having without his solicitation fixed upon him as the best 
available man for Assistant District Attorney of Erie 
County. The District Attorney and Cleveland's chief, 
C. C. Torrance, was in failing health, and more and more 
the burdens of the office fell to the young assistant. 
These he bore without shrinking, and by them proved his 
capacity for hard work, his legal skill, and his strength 
of character. 

He won the confidence of judge and juries alike by his 
open, fair-minded approach to all questions, by his pains- 
taking mastery of the facts in each case, and by his sturdy 
common sense. He allowed no case to come to trial 
until he had made conscientious preparation, and fre- 
quently he spent the whole night writing out his argu- 



HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT 1 9 

ment, and committing it to memory. His power of 
endurance was phenomenal, his memory no less so. 

This office gave him valuable experience and at the 
same time enabled him to continue to meet the obliga- 
tion, which he rejoiced to acknowledge, of giving finan- 
cial aid to his mother. It was this obligation which 
caused him to remain out of service when Lincoln's call 
for troops went forth, and to avail himself of the legal 
right to hire a substitute when he was drafted, a course 
which later caused him no little embarrassment during 
excited political campaigns. 

To those who watched his work as Assistant District 
Attorney Cleveland's devotion to duty was fully apparent. 
He met his obligations so fully and effectively that, when 
the elections of 1865 approached, he was the natural and 
inevitable choice of the Democrats for the office of Dis- 
trict Attorney. Again the nomination was made without 
his solicitation, and apparently even without his knowl- 
edge. He was defeated by the Republican candidate, 
his intimate friend, Lyman K. Bass, and at once resumed 
his law practice, not as clerk now, but as partner of former 
State Treasurer Major Isaac K. Vanderpoel. In 1869,. 
Vanderpoel resigned and the firm became Lanning, 
Cleveland, and Folsom. 

Grover Cleveland was now twenty-eight years of age, 
with a variety of experiences to his credit. He had missed 
the college education which he had coveted, but in its 
place he had learned the lessons of that more exacting 
taskmaster, human experience. The returns from the 
firm were not large, but his tastes were simple, and wealth, 
"a superfluity of the things one does not want," as Lincoln 
defined it, was never his goal. 

His attitude toward life was fairly represented by a 
quaint illuminated motto which hung over his bed in his 



20 GROVER CLEVELAND 

sleeping room above his law office. It represented the 
allegorical figures of Life, Duty, and Death, underneath 
which was inscribed the motto : "As thy days are, so shall 
thy strength be." *'If I have any coat of arms and em- 
blem," he once remarked to a friend, "it is that. It is a 
motto I chose years ago and I devised that form to keep 
it with me." 

He was content with his simple apartment, his group 
of intimates at "Dutchman's," or some other favorite 
resort, and he dreamed of a future of law practice, with a 
possible judgeship at the end of a long vista. With this 
goal in mind, he declined the flattering ofifer of the 
Assistant District Attorneyship for the Northern District 
of New York, with its prestige and promise of quick 
advancement, feeling that he had already spent too much 
time on side issues, if he was to grow into a real jurist. 

But a crisis was approaching. In 1870 the Democrats 
of Erie County faced an important local election, with a 
normally large Republican majority to be overcome. 
Cleveland was popular, and had recently made a strong 
race for District Attorney. On the day before the con- 
vention, therefore, he was offered the nomination for the 
lucrative office of Sheriff. Such a suggestion had never 
entered his mind, and at first it made no strong appeal 
to him. He therefore declined it. But the Democratic 
leaders were persistent, his sense of party obligation was 
strong, and the financial rewards in the event of victory 
were enticingly large. He therefore consented to 
reconsider. 

"I know," he said to William Dorsheimer, whose 
advice he was asking, "that it is not usual for lawyers to 
be sheriffs. . . . But there are some reasons why I should 
consider the matter carefully. I have been compelled 
to earn my living since I was seventeen. I have never 



HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT 21^ 

had time for reading, nor for thorough professional study. 
The sheriff's office would take me out of practice, but it 
would keep me about the courts, and in professional rela- 
tions. It would give me considerable leisure, which I 
could devote to self-improvement. Besides, it would 
enable me to save a modest competency, and give me the 
pecuniary independence which otherwise I may never 
have. I have come for your advice. What would you do 
in my place?" 

Dorsheimer's counsel confirmed his own deliberate 
judgment, and he accepted the nomination. His county, 
normally Republican, gave him a majority of a hundred 
votes, and at once he became the hope, and soon the 
despair, of the hungry pack of Democratic politicians 
bent on gain. For years they had watched the Repub- 
licans fatten on the spoils which went with this office. 
Their day had come at last. A Democrat was Sheriff 
of Erie County. 

But it was not long before the politicians began to 
understand just what they had accomplished in persuad- 
ing Grover Cleveland to enter politics. To their con- 
sternation, they found that only one type of contractor 
could win the favor of the new Sheriff, namely, he whoss 
bid was lowest. Generous as he was with his own money, 
he was exasperatingly careful with the money of the 
people whose faith had elevated him to office. He be- 
lieved in business methods for public offices, and ruth- 
lessly applied the principle to the one under his charge. 

He soon discovered, by the use of his own tape line, 
that the contractor who furnished wood for the county 
jail was giving short measure, and at once a new con- 
tractor was found, and the activities of the former one 
limited to the task of making good his deficiencies. A 
crooked miller shortly received similar attentions, and 



22 GROVER CLEVELAND 

Other dishonest contractors in turn faced an unexpected 
reckoning. 

When, at the end of his term, he retired, he went out 
of office with a very large augmentation of the reputation 
for honesty and fearlessness which had secured his nomi- 
nation. He had held an office of unsavory traditions and 
supremely unpleasant duties, and had held it against the 
grafters of his own party. 

The next eight years saw Grover Cleveland again at 
the practice of the law. To the miscellaneous business 
which came to his firm, Bass, Cleveland, and Bissell (later 
Cleveland and Bissell), he devoted all of his vast energy, 
as of old working time and again all night over a case. 

John G. Milburn, one of his lifelong friends, gives an 
attractive picture of Mr. Cleveland at this time: 

"He was an outstanding lawyer at the Buffalo bar, 
but with a distinctly local reputation and acquaintance. 
. . . He was a prominent citizen, deeply respected for 
his independence, force of character, and inbred integrity. 
He was genial and companionable, with his intimacies 
mainly among men. . . . He was more inclined to cir- 
cumscribe his professional work than to extend it; but he 
did his work with an extraordinary thoroughness. That 
thoroughness was a specific characteristic. He gave his 
best to everything he did. I have known him, when 
engaged in the trial of an important case, to work on it 
all through the night and resume the trial the next morn- 
ing, after a cold bath and breakfast, as fresh as if he had 
had a long night's sleep. His physical endurance was 
extraordinary, beyond anything I have ever known. He 
would subject himself to enormous strains of work and I 
never heard him complain of fatigue. . . . His com- 
manding qualities were those of judgment, earnestness, 
and moral force lightened by a keen sense of humor. At 



HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT 23 

the bar and among men they gave him a marked and 
powerful position and influence. He was recognized on 
all sides as a power in the community, which would be 
more and more visible as some emergency arose bringing 
it into full play. That is the man as I saw him in 1881." 

It was during this period that Mr. Chauncey M. 
Depew, then President of the New York Central Rail- 
road, offered him the attorneyship of the company in 
western New York, which would have brought him in 
a salary of some fifteen thousand dollars, while permitting 
him to retain his personal practice. Mr. Cleveland 
answered that he had set the limit to the work he could 
do satisfactorily to himself, that he was making ten 
thousand a year, which, with the income from what he 
had saved, was ample for his needs, and that no addition 
to that income could induce him to change his plans or 
assume new personal obligations. 

He loved to do his work at his own convenience, and 
was satisfied with existing conditions. But his reputation 
as a fearless and able public servant had already spread 
to the camp of the reformers, and the hour was approach- 
ing when he would again be called to leave his private 
pursuits and take up the duties of a still more important 
office in the service of the people. Although far from 
suspecting it, he was upon the threshold of a great career, 
reached with unprecedented suddenness: for within four 
years he was to be, in quick succession. Mayor of Buffalo, 
Governor of New York, and President of the United 
States. 



CHAPTER II 

THE VETO MAYOR 

"Unswerving loyalty to duty, constant devotion to truth, 
and a clear conscience will overcome every discouragement 
and surely lead the way to usefulness and high achievement." 

— Grover Cleveland. 

IN i88i, a ring composed of members of both political 
parties was in control of the Board of Aldermen of 
Buffalo, and their works of corruption were a scandal 
to honest men. Leading members of both parties, de- 
termined upon reform, therefore consulted together. It 
was evident that to form a third party was to court cer- 
tain defeat, and that to attempt to break into the Repub- 
lican Convention and force the nomination of a reform 
candidate was equally futile. The Republicans being 
entrenched, the only hope of dislodging the bi-party ring 
which was working through them was to force the nomi- 
nation of a reform mayor upon the Democratic Conven- 
tion. And so they turned to the office of Cleveland and 
Bissell and offered to Grover Cleveland the Democratic 
nomination for Mayor of Buffalo. 

Pointing to his paper-laden table and asking his vis- 
itors to look at the interests he represented, the trusts that 
had been reposed in him, Mr. Cleveland declined the 
offer. Balked for the moment, but not wholly discour- 
aged, the reformers faced the convention, which pro- 
ceeded to make its nominations. Through their effort, 
the head of the ticket was left undetermined, in the hope 

that Mr. Cleveland might be prevailed upon to recon- 

24 



THE VETO MAYOR 25 

sider. When the ticket, in this incomplete form, was 
shown to him with the suggestion that the vacant line was 
for his name, he scanned it critically and announced that 
he would accept if the name of John C. Sheehan, for 
Comptroller, were removed. 

This was an astounding proposition, for Sheehan was 
the political boss of the convention. It was, however, an 
ultimatum, and Cleveland's name was an essential factor 
in the plans of the reformers. The ring-rule sym- 
pathizers, too, were not averse to his nomination, which 
they felt would soothe the reform element and, by a de- 
feat, convince them of their helplessness. So Sheehan 
retired, Grover Cleveland was nominated by acclamation, 
and the Independents, who had formed a temporary po- 
litical organization of their own, at once endorsed him. 

The nomination settled, Mr. Cleveland astonished 
both friend and foe by declaring that he knew the poli- 
ticians had consented to his nomination because they 
counted confidently upon his defeat, but that he intended 
to be elected. If elected, he further assured them, with 
the memory of Samuel J. Tilden and the presidential elec- 
tion of 1876 in mind, he would not be counted out. 

His formal letter of acceptance was in the frank and 
simple style with which America and the world later 
became so familiar. He did not seek for new and strik- 
ing phrases, nor did he pretend that he could bring to 
the problems of the office an unexampled wisdom, or an 
inspiration denied to other men. He frankly spoke old 
truths, and pledged his honor to them. The letter is not, 
and was not intended to be thought, a pathfinder, but it 
is a reliable introduction to the mind of an honest man, 
seeking to serve the people. 

The keynote of this letter lies in the phrase, "Public 
officials are the trustees of the people." From it the 



26 GROVER CLEVELAND 

political genius of William C. Hudson later created the 
famous slogan, "Public office is a public trust." But 
though the form was Hudson's, the sentiment was Cleve- 
land's, and by it he ever regulated the conduct of his 
official life, whether as Sherifif, as Mayor, as Governor, 
or as President. 

To the confusion of the bi-party ring, Grover Cleve- 
land was elected Mayor of Buffalo by the largest majority 
ever given to a candidate for that office. Although 
frankly proclaiming himself a Democrat, he drew from 
the best element of both parties, and that his victory was 
largely personal is shown by the fact that, at the same 
election, the Republican state ticket was successful in 
Buffalo. Without effort, and almost against his will, he 
secured a majority of 3,530 in a city which, two years 
before, had given a plurality of over three thousand to 
the Republican candidate for Governor, Alonzo B. 
Cornell. 

On January i, 1882, the new Mayor entered upon 
the duties of his office. He was not yet forty-five but, 
save for a brief period of four years between his two 
terms as President of the United States, his career as a 
lawyer was over. Henceforth he belonged to the people. 

Mr. Cleveland's tasks as Mayor of Buffalo were grim 
tasks, made harder by the fact that the enthusiasm for 
reform had not been strong enough to give him a sympa- 
thetic council. To present his inaugural message to a 
body whom he had been chosen to chasten was a task 
requiring courage not only, but also a certain discretion 
which, with a dominant opposition, is the better part of 
valor. He prepared this document with extreme care, 
but with no desire to mask his intentions. He had been 
chosen in the interest of civic reform, and he frankly 
declared his purpose of instituting civic reform. With 



THE VETO MAYOR 27 

the certain touch of the man who knows his facts, he 
pointed out specific abuses, assuring his unappreciative 
hearers that: 

"We hold the money of the people in our hands, to 
be used for their purposes and to further their interests 
as members of the municipality, and it is quite apparent 
that, when any part of the funds which the taxpayers 
have thus intrusted to us are diverted to other purposes, 
or when, by design or neglect, we allow a greater sum to 
be applied to any municipal purpose than is necessary, 
we have, to that extent, violated our duty. There surely 
is no difference in his duties and obligations, whether a 
person is intrusted with the money of one man or 
many. . . ." 

And Mayor Cleveland was not content to express his 
convictions by words alone. His commission from the 
people was not to change the ethical standards of his col- 
leagues in the government, but to alter their practices. 
From theory, therefore, he turned to action. 

Concerning the street department, he reported to the 
council, most of whom needed no information upon the 
subject: "Investigation . . . has developed the most 
shameful neglect of duty. . . . The mismanagement of 
affairs of this department has led directly to the wasting 
(to use no stronger term) of the people's money." And 
he followed the general statement by a shocking bill of 
particulars. 

So clear was his meaning, so certain to catch the ear 
and arouse the enthusiasm of a machine-ridden people, 
that his opponents, at this point, attempted to prevent the 
reading of the message. But he could neither be checked 
nor diverted by discourtesy from the course which seemed 
to him plain duty: to state his views and purposes to the 
men upon whom rested, conjointly with himself, the 



28 GROVER CLEVELAND 

responsibility for legislation, the duty of reform. The 
message was the challenge, and the reply came soon. 

The charter of the city of Buffalo made provision 
that the Common Council should select one daily news- 
paper as the official organ, and pay it a subsidy for pub- 
lishing the proceedings of the Council; and the action 
of the Council, in this matter, was expressly exempted 
from the operation of the Mayor's veto. In his message, 
Mayor Cleveland had specifically referred to this fact, 
but had suggested that this printing, which involved the 
expenditure of thousands of dollars, be g^iven to the 
lowest bidder. In view of the publicity which the press 
gave to the message, the Council had been compelled to 
accept the suggestion and advertise for bids. The fact 
then became apparent to all, that, under the old system, 
the city had been paying two prices for its work, only 
one of which had gone to the printer. With sighs for 
lost spoils, the ring accepted the lowest bid, and at once 
devised new methods for securing new spoils. 

They drew a bill providing that certain German 
papers should be paid for printing official digests of the 
proceedings of the Council. This was a plan of graft 
indicative of a paucity of imagination, and Mayor Cleve- 
land, in vetoing it, exposed its too obvious fallacy. The 
German papers, from their desire to serve their public, 
he explained, "will publish a synopsis much more satis- 
factory to their subscribers than any which the city clerk 
will be apt to prepare . . . and without any compensa- 
tion from the city. . . . The effect of the resolution . . . 
is (therefore) to give these newspapers eight hundred 
dollars each for doing no more than they will ... be 
obliged to do without it. This comes very near being a 
most objectionable subsidy." This made the issue so clear 



THE VETO MAYOR 29 

that it would have been politically unsafe to push the 
resolution farther, and the matter was dropped. 

Mr. Cleveland's courage and the sincerity of his de- 
mands for reform were shortly again put to the test by 
his enemies in the Council; for the dreamers of unjust 
subsidies and unearned gains now knew themselves to be 
his enemies. He had informed the Council that "of the 
total deaths reported . . . thirty-six per cent . . . have 
been from zymotic diseases, dependent, in some degree at 
least, upon surrounding conditions, . . . and prevent- 
able." The Board of Health, having been commissioned 
to report upon the situation, declared that insufficient 
sewerage was the chief cause of the condition, and that 
it could be easily remedied by the building of an adequate 
system of sewers and by introducing Niagara water into 
every house and closing up every well. To hasten the 
completion of this enormous undertaking, and to make it 
more difficult for the ring to pass it over to favored con- 
tractors and thus rob the public treasury by needless ex- 
penditures, Mr. Cleveland suggested to the Council that 
as they and the city engineers were already fully occupied 
with their regular routine duties, the construction of the 
sewer should be put in the hands of a commission of 
citizens. 

This suggestion, if adopted, meant that the finest 
opportunity for "graft" ever offered a Buflfalo City Coun- 
cil would be snatched from them, and the opposition 
promptly opened an attack through the city engineer, who 
argued "in the interest of the public," that such a work, 
if handed over to a commission, would result in "perma- 
nent loss and injury to the records of this department." 
Though large, he declared, the work could be carried out 
quite easily, though it would be an advantage to have 



30 GROVER CLEVELAND 

added to his office "a consulting engineer of acknowl- 
edged ability in this specialty." 

Here was a challenge which the Mayor met promptly 
and definitely. "I am utterly amazed to learn," he de- 
clared, ". . . that the job . . . is such an easy one. Every 
member of your honorable body knows very well that 
for many years the problem of . . . how the Main and 
Hamburg Streets canal nuisance should be abated has 
occupied . . . the attention of our city officials. I find in 
the Council proceedings of eleven years ago that this canal 
was declared a great nuisance. . . . The actual result of 
all their endeavors to master this easy subject has been 
the establishment of a wheel in the water adjoining the 
canal." He further showed that the very city engineer 
who was insisting upon his right to do this large and 
important work had allowed four months to pass without 
so much as a report of progress concerning a similar 
though smaller problem which had recently been referred 
to him. Upon which task, he scornfully declared, "not 
a stroke of real work has yet been done, and yet there 
seems to have been considerable skillful engineering 
talent employed, at quite an expense. . . . Either the 
work has not been easy or considerable money has been 
wasted." 

Having presented these facts, and confident in the 
strength of public support, Cleveland was ready for a 
trial of strength; but the Council, while still determined 
to keep the work within its own control, preferred the 
safer methods of indirection. They prepared a bill pro- 
viding for a commission, but one so shorn of power as to 
leave the way open to the control which they desired. 
Mayor Cleveland promptly recognized the strategy and 
blocked it. The Council was forced to yield and a com- 
mission was formed, on the lines desired by the Mayor. 



THE VETO MAYOR 3 1 

Mr. Cleveland next presented his nominations for the 
commission. The Council rejected them, but the de- 
termination of the honest Mayor was even stronger than 
that of the would-be grafters. Moreover, Mr. Cleveland 
had recently held them up to the scorn and contempt of 
the city and they feared to push him to such lengths so 
soon again. Having discovered a shameful scheme to 
assign the street-cleaning contract to one George Talbot 
at figures calculated to throw a small fortune into his 
hands, the Mayor had intervened and forced the Council 
to award it to the lowest bidder. He thus, at one stroke, 
saved the city over one hundred thousand dollars and 
attracted national attention by a veto message describing 
the intended deal as "a most barefaced, impudent, and 
shameless scheme to betray the interests of the people." 
When, therefore, he resubmitted the names for his com- 
mission with the comment that "their rejection . . . was 
the result of haste and confusion," the Council, having 
found their master, instantly confirmed them. ^ 

It is a matter of little permanent importance that the 
new commission did the work promptly and upon reason- 
able terms. But it is of wide significance that, as Mayor 
of Buffalo, Grover Cleveland accomplished, in the face 
of entrenched selfishness, the reforms for which the peo- 
ple had been vainly calling, and that before the end of 
his strenuous term of office, he was beginning to be 
thought of as the type of man for a reform governor of 
New York. It is also of general significance that these 
experiences, multiplied many times over, made of him 
a reformer in root and branch. They caused him fully 
to realize the insidious dangers which ever beset popular 
government, and to set his face still more uncompromis- 
ingly toward reform. 

Each bill presented to him received his patient study 



32 GROVER CLEVELAND 

and not one veto was ever issued unadvisedly. His care- 
fully written arguments were constructive rather than 
destructive, aiming at the creation of a system which 
would stop the abuses which he saw so clearly and pointed 
out so fearlessly. Over and over again they contain 
fundamental discussions of public morality. He spoke 
not as a mayor dealing with the comparatively insignifi- 
cant interests of a small city, but as a statesman enunciat- 
ing the great principles upon which free government 
rests. And so his vetoes, while gaining for him each day 
a more bitter enmity from the political boss and the 
would-be grafter, steadily raised him in the respect of 
honest men. 

In spite of his firmness, however, in spite of the con- 
suming heat of his wrath when once aroused, he was in 
general considerate in his dealings with his Council, and 
often, in the more difficult problems which came before 
him, he showed the depth of his human sympathy. Those 
unfortunate little ones, the children of the streets, were 
his especial care, and found in him a watchful and re- 
sourceful friend. He also insisted that the poorer quar- 
ters of the city should have every possible protection and 
advantage. 

In the summer of 1882, he received a resolution of 
the Council directing the street commissioner to replace 
a pump which, in the interest of public health, had been 
removed. His veto message breathes scorn and contempt 
for the authors of the measure. "The particular well," 
he declared, ". . . stands third in the list as to the extent 
of contamination. ... If there is in the mind of anyone 
the idea that it is not necessary to supply the poor and 
laboring people in the vicinity of this well with water 
as pure and healthful as that furnished to their richer 
and more pretentious fellow citizens, I desire to say that 



THE VETO MAYOR 33 

I have no sympathy with such a notion. On the contrary, 
I believe that the poor who toil should of all others have 
access to what nature intended for their refreshment — 
wholesome and pure water." 

In all these conflicts the Mayor, while almost uni- 
formly victorious, never developed the executive bacillus 
of personal egotism, or the pretense of phenomenal wis- 
dom. His messages continued to be simple, straightfor- 
ward statements of facts verified by careful study, and 
citations of laws quoted with meticulous exactness. When 
found in error, he willingly admitted the fact, but he 
never allowed such admissions to cause him to distrust 
his own judgment in matters concerning which he had 
not been shown to be wrong. 

The telling title of "Veto Mayor" was won by his 
policy of pinning the crime upon the criminal. Delib- 
erate dishonesty, according to his practical philosophy, 
is not to be regarded in the abstract. Wherever it exists, 
it is distinctly personal, and public duty requires that it 
be dealt with in terms of individuals. His strong and 
fearless pronouncements -were like blasts of a trumpet of 
the age of heroes, and were the more effective because 
it was a matter of record that his words were but the 
precursors of actions even more fearless. 

It is said of Napoleon that at the bridge of Lodi he 
suddenly saw himself for the first time a possible world 
figure. In Albany, in the once locally famous Flanagan 
murder case, according to the interpretation of Buffalo 
contemporaries. Mayor Cleveland first realized that there 
might be for him a larger career than that of provincial 
mayor or district lau^^er. The case itself is of no more 
importance than thousands of cases which crowd the 
books of our criminal courts. 

In 1880 Martin Flanagan killed John Kairns, fore- 



34 GROVER CLEVELAND 

man in a grain elevator in which Flanagan was employed. 
The case was tried and Flanagan was sentenced to death 
for murder in the first degree. Appeals to the Superior 
Court of Buffalo, and later to the Court of Appeals, con- 
firmed the verdict. As the date set for the execution 
approached, the case became the subject of conversation 
at the corner table in the Tifft House, where Mr. Cleve- 
land ordinarily lunched with a body of close friends. In 
his absence, the company decided that Flanagan had not 
had a fair trial and agreed to wait upon Mayor Cleveland 
and ask him to procure from Governor Cornell a stay of 
execution, in order that the facts in the case might be 
again examined. The stay was granted, and Mayor 
Cleveland reviewed the case himself, discovering evi- 
dence which convinced him that Flanagan ought not to 
be executed. 

He found, according to Judge Locke, who was asso- 
ciated with the reopening of the case, that "one of Flana- 
gan's counsel, the one who could plead, had been so drunk 
during the trial that the other, who could not plead, had 
been compelled to sum up without notice." It appeared 
also that Flanagan "had killed his man with a short- 
bladed barlow knife which no one would have supposed 
a deadly weapon. He stabbed, furthermore, in the right 
side, ignorant of the fact that his antagonist had a dis- 
placed heart, which was thus pierced." These facts 
established, Mr. Cleveland's duty was plain. He must 
go to Albany, appear before the Governor, and plead for 
the life of the doomed man. 

The trip was planned in consultation with the men 
who had first approached him in the matter. Mr. John 
Allen, a director of the New York Central Railroad, and 
a frequenter of the corner table at the Tifft House, ar- 
ranged for a special car into which were bundled most 



THE VETO MAYOR 35 

of the jurymen who had convicted Flanagan, a body of 
witnesses, packages of affidavits, the District Attorney, 
and a number of citizens who had aided the Mayor in 
preparing his case. Mr. Cleveland's methods were 
always thorough, and in this case they had been particu- 
larly so, for a human life depended upon his efforts. 

The Governor received them in the Executive Cham- 
ber, with the unencouraging courtesy of a man whose 
boast it was that he seldom used his power of pardon. 
Mr. Cleveland opened the hearing with a carefully pre- 
pared statement of the facts and circumstances of the 
crime, together with a review of the trial, pointing out 
his reasons for questioning the justice of the verdict. The 
Governor appeared little impressed. Affidavits, letters, 
papers, recommendations from the jurors followed. Still 
the Governor remained unresponsive. The District At- 
torney, Mr. Edward W. Hatch, was then called upon 
by the Governor for a summary of the facts of the case 
as revealed by the evidence at the trial. Mr. Hatch de- 
clared that the evidence had justified the verdict, and that 
the appeals which had been taken had revealed no errors. 

At this point. Governor Cornell considered that 
enough had been said, and declined to listen to an addi- 
tional plea of Mr. Box of Buffalo. His refusal was so 
peremptory that Box dared not further insist upon his 
right to speak, but Mayor Cleveland sprang to his feet 
and faced the Governor with the words: "We come to 
you as to a king, pleading for mercy. It is your duty 
to hear us to the end." And Governor Cornell did hear 
him to the end, and the end was a commutation of the 
sentence of the doomed man. 

In conversation with a friend, some months later, the 
Governor remarked: "There is a remarkable man in 
Buffalo. . . . His name is Cleveland, and although he 



36 GROVER CLEVELAND 

is Mayor of the city, he recently came to see me in a legal 
capacity on behalf of a convicted murderer, under sen- 
tence of death. His appeal to me for executive clemency 
was totally unlike any I heretofore have received. It 
was without sentiment. It was a cold, dispassionate pres- 
entation of the unfortunate circumstances under which 
the killing was done, the provocation, and the shadow 
of presumptive justification for the act. ... I was so 
impressed with the sincerity and the legal cocksureness 
of the man that I commuted the sentence." 

Grover Cleveland who, as Sheriff of Erie County, had 
with his own hands hanged a malefactor rather than put 
upon the shoulders of another a responsibility which be- 
longed to his office, thus saved another unfortunate from 
the same fate, because he believed the sentence to be 
unjust. In his effort to secure the ends of justice, he 
matched his will, his brain, and his legal skill against a 
man of great power and reputed ability, and carried his 
point. He had come to the bridge of Lodi, and the days 
of his greatness were not far oflf. The next time he 
entered that Executive Chamber, it was as Governor of 
New York. 



CHAPTER III 

THE REFORM GOVERNOR 

"Let us look for guidance to the principles of true Democ- 
racy, which are enduring because they are right, and invincible 
because they are just." 

— Grover Cleveland. 

AS Mayor of Buffalo, Grover Cleveland had accom- 
plished definite results. He had fought a winning 
battle for the people against entrenched crookedness^ 
against a "gang" which a Republican daily, the Express, 
described as "the most corrupt combination ever formed 
in the Council." And so successfully had he fought that, 
at the end of his strenuous term, he was in the minds of 
local reform leaders as a candidate for Governor of 
New York. 

Among his fellows he was reckoned "a good fellow," 
which meant that he lived as they lived, a life by no means 
saintly, but irreproachably honest, and in general com- 
mendable. He drank a little, but not to excess. He 
played poker, but only for sums so small as to involve 
no hardship either to winner or to loser. His profession 
was always his chief interest and he was known in the 
Buffalo district as a man of parts, who could be trusted 
to serve the people tirelessly and fearlessly, and with- 
out raising, even in his own mind, the question, "Will 
it pay me?" 

Outside the Buffalo district, the public as yet knew 
little of him, save as the ringing words of his more im- 
portant vetoes had gained a wider currency, by their 

37 



38 GROVER CLEVELAND 

appeal to virile, courageous, fighting manhood. To those 
familiar with the politics of New York State at that 
period it was evident that there at least the great Repub- 
lican experiment needed a leader built on the lines of a 
man of war, and on September 20, 1882, that need was 
emphasized anew by the nomination of Charles J. Folger 
as Republican candidate for Governor of New York. 
The announcement of this nomination was received with 
an outburst of indignation by the reform element of both 
parties. Henry Ward Beecher, in words which reached 
every corner of the land, declared that it had been 
achieved by bribery and forgery, and added the opinion 
that the machine "should be rebuked in a manner it cannot 
fail to understand." 

Folger himself was regarded as a gentleman of high 
character and exemplary life, but it was felt that he had 
been chosen for the Republicans and not by them. Only 
a few months before the nomination, President Arthur 
had taken him from the bench of the New York Court of 
Appeals and had made him Secretary of the Treasury 
with the purpose, so his enemies believed, of using him 
to prevent the renomination of Governor Cornell. At the 
psychological moment, a telegram from Washington had 
made him the Administration candidate. In his interest, 
delegates had been coerced, efficient public servants had 
been removed to be replaced by the President's partisans, 
and about the patronage-packed convention had hovered 
the agents of Jay Gould, laying plans for special privi- 
leges. By such methods, as one of the New York City 
Republican journals complained, "the wishes of 450,000 
Republicans were overridden by the will of Chester A. 
Arthur, accidental President by the grace of Guiteau's 
bullet." 

In view of these facts, the followers of the uncertain 



THE REFORM GOVERNOR 39 

presidential dreams of James G. Blaine saw in Folger's 
nomination a plan to defeat their '^peerless leader" in 
the next presidential campaign, and watched with eager 
expectancy the preparations for the Democratic State 
Convention which should select Folger's antagonist. 

Early in the summer of 1882, Mr. Cleveland received 
news of the illness of his mother, and departed at once 
for Holland Patent. During his prolonged absence his 
friends in Buffalo quietly launched a movement for his 
nomination as Democratic candidate for Governor. In 
his own district the suggestion met with instant favor, 
and from the first it was evident that the sixty delegates 
of his judicial district could be counted on to support him 
in the convention. Reports were sent to him from time 
to time, but he gave them little attention. His mother was 
dying, and all his thought was for her. 

"During those last sad days of waiting," writes one 
who spent them with him, "no one would have supposed 
that any political ambitions were in his mind. Never 
once, during the last two weeks of her illness, did he leave 
the home town; and when the many letters and tele- 
grams arrived, he answered them with no apparent con- 
cern, so that even the family group were not aware of 
the possibilities that lay so definitely before him." 

On July 19th his mother died, with her seven sur- 
viving children about her. She was buried beside her 
husband, and Grover Cleveland returned to his official 
duties with a remark about "the desolation of a life with- 
out a mother's prayers." 

Arrived in Buffalo, he found the movement for his 
nomination well advanced and superbly organized. At 
first he took little interest, though he did not discourage 
the movement, as he was a candidate for a place on the 
Supreme Bench of his district, and the prominent men- 



40 GROVER CLEVELAND 

tion of his name in connection with the governorship 
would further this ambition. He was, therefore, content 
that his friends should continue their work. 

As he watched their progress, he slowly became more 
interested. "I am not actively seeking the nomination for 
Governor," ... he wrote to Edgar P. Apgar, who had 
urged him to visit Dan Manning, master of the well-oiled 
Democratic machine at Albany, and heir to the methods 
of the Albany Regency. "I know that neither my ac- 
quaintance in political circles throughout the state, nor 
my standing in the state Democracy, would for a moment 
suggest my name . . . and if it were not for my abiding 
faith in the success of an honest eflfort to perform public 
duty, I should at times distrust my ability to properly bear 
the responsibilities of the place in case of election. 

"I am entirely certain, that if there is anything of my 
candidacy, it rests upon the fact that my location, and an 
entire freedom from the influence of all and any kind of 
factional disturbance, might make me an available candi- 
date. If my name is presented to the Convention, I should 
think it would be presented upon that theory. And I 
am sure, if I were nominated, and could be the instrument 
of bringing about the united action of the party at the 
polls, I should feel that I had been of great value to the 
people and to the party. 

"When an interview with Mr. Manning was first sug- 
gested, some time ago, my impulse was at once to find 
my way to him by way of showing my respect for his posi- 
tion in the party, and the regard I have learned to enter- 
tain for him as a gentleman. Upon reflection, however, 
it has occurred to me that if we meet by appointment, 
it will of course be known that we have been together, 
and it will not the less surely be falsely alleged, that an 
understanding has been arrived at between us, and pledges 



THE REFORM GOVERNOR 4 1 

made which make me his man. Would not this lying 
interpretation be used in answer to the claim that I am 
free from any alliances? Might not the friends of other 
candidates claim that one who was proclaimed as a free 
candidate, and yet had an understanding with Mr. Man- 
ning or his friends, ought not to be nominated? What 
would be the effect of such an appeal, on the Conven- 
tion, or afterwards on the election? . . . 

"I ask you then . . . whether . . . the chances of an 
election will not be better if this visit is not made as you 
suggest. May I not in this way avoid even the appear- 
ance of being anything except what I really am ; and may 
I not, thus, absolutely preclude the pretense that I am not 
a sound, plain, uncomplaining Democrat and an abso- 
lutely free man?" 

Meanwhile his political promoters. Democrats, Re- 
publicans, and Independents alike, were actively seeking 
his nomination. In the spacious gardens of Mr. George 
Urban, a Republican of Buffalo, they built a log cabin, 
in the midst of a grove of hickories. Beside the cabin 
stood a concrete base for the keg of beer which in Buffalo 
was the inevitable concomitant of every political confer- 
ence. Around this base three benches formed a triangle 
abutting upon a hickory, which shaded the "throne chair." 
On these benches beneath the emblematic trees his friends 
met with their chosen leader, Grover Cleveland, and with 
his at first reluctant co-operation, secretly planned their 
pre-convention campaign. 

Cleveland's leadership had not come by chance. From 
his earliest days in Buffalo he had been active in politics, 
not with a view to winning office, but as a civic duty. 
Urban, although a Republican leader, had often em- 
ployed Cleveland's talent for peacemaking, realizing that 
the latter was in close touch with the masses before he 



42 GROVER CLEVELAND 

began much contact with the classes, and that he easily 
maintained sympathetic relations with both without 
offense to either. When political troubles arose in the 
people's section, they would send for Cleveland, who 
"would sit down among the brothers of discontent, play 
with them, drink with them a while, and then peacefully 
settle their controversy." 

By September, mysterious hints of a "dark horse" in 
Erie County were causing political prophets to wonder, 
and expectant officials, accustomed to fatten upon party 
spoils, to come perilously near to prayer. Grover Cleve- 
land, enemy of the faithful spoilsmen of Buffalo, the man 
who had refused to pay his personal followers out of 
the public treasury, lived in Erie County. Could these 
rumors refer to him? 

As the date of the convention approached, Mr. Cleve- 
land saw clearly that his nomination was within the range 
of possibilities, and threw his tremendous energies into 
the scale. Now, for the first time, he appeared in the 
character of a politician seeking office; a keen, resource- 
ful, courageous leader, cautious in counsel, a field marshal 
in action. Three days before the convention, he sent to 
Wilson S. Bissell the following orders regarding Daniel 
Manning. 

Sept. ig, '82, 

I o'c. A.M. 
Dear Bissell: 

John B. Manning has been in to see me to-night and 
has much to say about treachery, &c. I listened to all. 
He talks Congressman at large. 
I still listened. 

Now do just as I tell you without asking any ques- 
tions. When Dan and Scheu get there, have them go the 



THE REFORM GOVERNOR 43 

first thing to Dan'l Manning and urge with the utmost 
vehemence my nomination. 

Never mind what he says — have them pound away. 

I am quite sure he thinks these two good friends are 
cool and jealous and don't want to see me nominated. And 
I am sure he has in his head the idea of Congressman at 
large and I think it is based upon what he thinks as to 
the real feelings of some of my friends — or that we think 
are friends. 

Of course I know how it is, but I want Manning to 
be convinced that he is wrong in his premises. 

I heard the same old song — if I had come to see him 
my nomination would have been assured, &c., Flower 
has much money, &c. . . . 

G. C. 

The situation which appeared when the Democratic 
State Convention met at Syracuse was one requiring both 
skill and courage. Delegates from Tammany Hall were 
clamoring for seats, and their astute leader, Kelly, was 
looking for help. Kings County presented her candidate. 
General Henry W. Slocum, the choice of Tilden; Jeffer- 
son County presented hers, Roswell P. Flower, ex-Con- 
gressman and ex-Chairman of the Executive State Com- 
mittee. Each claimed 156 votes out of a total of 384, 
thus leaving a possible 72 for the third candidate, should 
one venture to emerge. Between Slocum and Flower, 
however, there was fierce conflict, and this fact offered 
hope to the Cleveland minority. 

In the eagerness of battle both Slocum and Flower 
had made what they considered satisfactory terms with 
Manning, whose major aim was to prevent the seating of 
the Tammany Hall delegates. Kelly knew this and, with 
the to-be-expected wisdom of the serpent, set himself the 



44 GROVER CLEVELAND 

task of outwitting them both. He contrived to convince 
the managers of each that the nomination of their respec- 
tive candidates would be assured if only the Tammany- 
delegates could be seated. Thus the followers of Flower 
and Slocum united and forced the seating of Kelly's 
delegation. 

But when the thing was done, when the Tammany 
men were secure in their seats, and three ballots had 
failed to decide between the candidates, Kelly suddenly 
demanded that the Tammany delegation be called again, 
and upon that signal every brave voted for Grover Cleve- 
land, amid a scene of almost unprecedented excitement. 
When the third ballot was finally officially registered, 
Grover Cleveland's nomination was beyond question. He 
had two hundred and eleven votes as against one hundred 
and fifty-six for Slocum and fifteen for Flower; and, upon 
motion of the leader of the Slocum men, Cleveland was 
generously voted to be the unanimous choice of the 
convention. 

When the clans departed, the Flower men, the Slocum 
men, and the Tammany Hall braves all thought they 
understood what had happened. Tammany Hall had 
given recalcitrant Democrats a lesson in New York poli- 
tics, the lesson that the Big Chief hears all, sees all, 
knows all. Flower and Slocum had walked with Daniel 
Manning, and Tammany had punished them, giving the 
prize to the man who, as was supposed, had not so walked. 

The sequel, however, proves that even a Tammany 
leader in a New York State Convention, in what is con- 
sidered good tiger weather, may meet his match. Grover 
Cleveland had made his political reputation as a re- 
former, but he was wise enough to know that one must 
reform a tiger by methods quite different from those 
needed for men. And so, having reconsidered the cau- 



THE REFORM GOVERNOR 45 

tious program outlined in his August letter to Apgar, he 
had come to the convention city of Syracuse itself — not 
openly, but in the quiet of a late evening, when even tigers 
were asleep. For a few brief hours he had been closeted 
with Manning, and had departed as unostentatiously as he 
had come. His work, however, had been done before his 
departure. Manning had not captured Grover Cleveland. 
Grover Cleveland had captured Manning, who remained 
ever after an active, consistent Cleveland man. And of 
this visit Tammany had no inkling. 

Kelly left the Syracuse Convention serene in the 
thought that he had named the candidate. Manning felt 
confident that he had named him, while the knights of the 
hickory grove did not need to debate the question. Their 
task was to plan the election of an unowned candidate for 
Governor, the Honorable Grover Cleveland. 

Cleveland's nomination was thus neither an accident 
nor the result of a blind partisan conflict, but a victory 
by intention. Manning had nominated him, but was not 
entitled to consider him in any sense his man. Kelly had 
nominated him, but with the blinders on, and could claim 
no proprietorship; for Grover Cleveland had kept him- 
self free, if elected, to serve the people and to act in their 
interests alone, an achievement of political skill of which- 
Thomas Jefferson might have been justly proud. He 
deserved, and he received, the support of the intelligent 
reformers who understood how profoundly reform move- 
ments need political brains in leadership and political 
skill in management. 

The day after the ticket was chosen Mr. Cleveland 
wrote to David B. Hill, Mayor of Elmira, who had been 
nominated Lieutenant Governor: "Accept my hearty 
congratulations on your nomination. . . . Now let us go 



46 GROVER CLEVELAND 

to work and show the people of the state what two bache- 
lor mayors can do." 

Cleveland's letter accepting the nomination was a 
frank declaration of war upon such politicians as pervert 
to private ends the machinery designed to serve the peo- 
ple. It was downright, specific, Clevelandesque. It made 
promises which could neither be misunderstood by others 
nor repudiated through ingenious interpretations by 
himself, and it caused the 'braves' of both parties to get 
out their war paint and their tomahawks. They knew 
by his past record what his future policy was likely to 
prove. With Cleveland as Governor, no party affiliation 
would serve to shield a scoundrel. 

He did not write as a man seeking the support of 
hungry partisans, but as one calling honest men to battle 
for reform. He placed himself squarely on the side of 
those who, throughout the nation, were working for civil 
service reform, and as squarely on the side of honest elec- 
tions. "The expenditure of money to influence the action 
of people at the polls, . . ." he said, "is calculated to 
excite the gravest concern. When this pernicious agency 
is successfully employed, a representative form of govern- 
ment becomes a sham, and laws passed under its baleful 
influence cease to protect, but are made the means by 
which the rights of the people are sacrificed and the pub- 
lic treasury despoiled." 

Had Grover Cleveland been a politician, with the 
record of a spoilsman behind him, his promises would 
have meant little. They might have deceived a few of the 
simple, disgusted a few of the honest, caused mirth to a 
few other spoilsmen, and thus fulfilled their intended 
mission; for Americans had long since learned that, as 
the devil can quote Scripture, so the most dangerous type 
of demagogue can sing of ideals in false notes not easily 



THE REFORM GOVERNOR 47 

distinguishable from true. But Mr. Cleveland had 
already put into practice the ideals which he announced, 
and Republicans bent on reform rallied to his support 
with an enthusiasm equal to that of his Democratic 
followers. 

On the day of the election, as he sat in his office think- 
ing of the responsibilities soon to be his, he wrote to his 
brother, the Rev. William N. Cleveland, a letter which 
reveals at once his simplicity, his modesty, and his essen- 
tially religious point of view: 

Mayor's Office, Buffalo, N. Y. 

November J , 1882. 
My DEAR Brother : 

I have just voted. I sit here in the Mayor's office 
alone, with the exception of an artist from Frank Leslie's 
newspaper, who is sketching the office. If mother were 
here I should be writing to her, and I feel as if it were 
time to write to someone who will believe what I write. 

I have been for some time in the atmosphere of cer- 
tain success, so that I have been sure that I should assume 
the duties of the high office for which I have been named. 
I have tried hard in the light of this fact to properly 
appreciate the responsibilities that will rest upon me, and 
they are much — too much to be underestimated. But the 
thought that has troubled me is: Can I well perform my 
duties, and in such a manner as to do some good to the 
people of the State? I know there is room for it, and I 
know that I am honest and sincere in that desire to do 
well, but the question is whether I know enough to accom- 
plish what I desire. . . . 

I will tell you, first of all others, the policy I intend 
to adopt, and that is to make the matter a business engage- 
ment between the people of the State and myself, in 



48 GROVER CLEVELAND 

which the obligation on my side is to perform the duties 
assigned me with an eye single to the interests of my 
employers. I shall have no idea of re-election or any 
higher political preferment in my head, but be very 
thankful and happy if I can well serve one term as the 
people's Governor. Do you know that if mother were 
alive I should feel so much safer? I have always thought 
her prayers had much to do with my success. I shall 
expect you to help me in that way. . . . 
Your affectionate brother, 

Grover Cleveland. 

When the vote was counted it was found that Grover 
Cleveland had received 535,318 out of a total of 915,539, 
a majority too large for a mere party victory. It repre- 
sented the voice of New York's better self, speaking in 
terms of reform. But it also represented the determina- 
tion of Blaine's followers that President Arthur's candi- 
date should not be chosen. By the thousands they had 
absented themselves from the polls, and so helped to give 
prominence to a personality far more dangerous to the 
ambition of their brilliant leader than Arthur could ever 
have been. 

As Governor of New York, Grover Cleveland trans- 
ferred to his larger sphere of activity the habits of plain 
living, incessant labor, and courageous action which had 
characterized him during his brief period as Mayor 
of Buffalo. With a spacious residence at his disposal — 
spacious as compared with the simple bachelor apart- 
ments which he had occupied during his Buffalo days — 
he developed no taste for society. At times, as custom 
required, he threw open the doors of the Executive Man- 
sion. But he viewed these functions as a species of pen- 
ance, rather than as a diversion — a penance which, with 



THE REFORM GOVERNOR 49 

his colored steward, William Sinclair, in control, usually 
extended beyond the evening concerned. "William," he 
wrote to Bissell, the day after one of these functions, "has 
been making me eat up the remains of the reception." 

He began to study the records before he began to draw 
his salary; and as soon as the ceremony of inauguration 
was over, withdrew to his office and settled down to work, 
leaving with the astonished attendants an order to "admit 
at once anyone who asks to see the Governor." This in 
itself was a revolution. It was the opening of "the for- 
bidden city," for the Governors of New York had long 
been accustomed to surround themselves with formalities 
which rendered them difficult of access. But Grover 
Cleveland liked to meet his adversaries face to face, to 
fight his battles in the open. Life in a country store, at 
Fayetteville, and later amid the intimate surroundings 
of Buffalo, had done for him what the intimacies of the 
country store did for Patrick Henry, Henry Clay, Abra- 
ham Lincoln, and numerous other American statesmen 
who used this "frontier clubhouse" as their social center. 
It taught him to understand humanity. In the Buffalo 
hotel, bar, or restaurant, he had met upon terms of inti- 
macy, farmers, cattlemen, commercial travelers, politi- 
cians, and the rest of the varied assortment of Americans 
who congregated there. He had learned how they think, 
scheme, plan, and fight, and he trusted his ability to deal 
with them, without taking advantage of the shelter which 
high executive office offers. 

To the eager spoilsman, as to all others, he was easily 
accessible, and he did not speak in Delphic phrase. To 
the oft-repeated question, "Is it not due me on account 
of my work during the campaign?" his reply was: "I 
don't know that I fully understand you." But when the 
explanation was made, and the spoilsman's motto in any 



50 GROVER CLEVELAND 

of its myriad forms was displayed, he made it abundantly 
clear that the new Governor acknowledged no allegiance 
to a tradition which sanctioned payment for partisan 
services out of the people's treasury. 

Rendered suspicious by his previous official experi- 
ences, he took nothing on faith, but studied with extreme 
care each bill sent up for his signature. Those which 
he considered in the public interest he signed. Those 
which he regarded as unwise, inexpedient, or worse (and 
there were many of the latter class) he vetoed. Those 
which were susceptible of alterations which would make 
them good laws, he laboriously altered, and returned with 
the suggestion that he could sign them if changed. He 
had not learned — indeed he never learned — to conserve 
his own strength by delegating the labor of such investi- 
gations to others. As a result, he expended his vast 
energies upon details usually left in the hands of sub- 
ordinates. Applications for pardons added enormously 
to his labors, for he reviewed each case himself and 
worked out his decisions according to the laws of evi- 
dence, being unwilling either to deny or to grant appeals 
upon the basis of any but his own mental processes. 

It is easy for those wedded to modern methods of 
executive efficiency to scorn such apparent wastefulness; 
but it gave to Governor Cleveland's public documents a 
ring of certitude which left his less laborious antagonists 
at a disadvantage. They soon understood that when the 
Governor stated a fact, it was useless to attempt to prove 
it fiction; when he referred to a statute, it was wasted 
energy to check up his reference. And the public came 
to realize that when he cried "Wolf! wolf!" they must 
not allow themselves to be deceived by sheep's clothing, 
for in the end the wolf was certain to appear, and the 
Governor's warnings to be justified. 



THE REFORM GOVERNOR 5 1 

When a public man wins a reputation for unimpeach- 
able honesty, he takes hold upon public confidence; but 
until he can show in addition that he has wisdom, his 
hold is easily loosened. Grover Cleveland, in the two 
years of his governorship, impressed the people with 
both his honesty and his wisdom, and to these he added 
the quality of courage which gave a touch of the dra- 
matic so essential to political success. He dared to de- 
fend the rights of small holders, and of the State, against 
the unjust demands of corporations; but he was equally 
ready to face the less popular duty of defending the rights 
of corporations when the public, misled by demagogues 
or by the no less dangerous valor of ignorance, clamored 
for their destruction. 

When the First National Bank of Buffalo failed, he 
refused to sign a bill authorizing the Comptroller to 
lighten its liabilities. "The bank has failed," he said in 
his veto message, "and is unable to refund the State's 
deposits. The securities in the bond have thus become 
liable . . . and I can see no reason why they should be 
relieved. I am willing to do what I can to check the 
growing impression that contracts with the State will 
not be insisted upon or may be evaded. The money de- 
posited with the bank was public money . . . and I re- 
gard it the duty of all having the care of state affairs to 
see to it that no part is lost. . . ." 

Public officials, according to his philosophy, are not 
advocates seeking to gain something for their client, the 
Government, but guardians of that right and justice whose 
preservation is essential both to Government and indi- 
vidual. A severe test of this principle came in the spring 
of 1883, in the form of the Five-Cent Fare Bill. This 
bill was what the politician calls "vote-getting legisla- 
tion," being designed to reduce the cost of living and to 



52 GROVER CLEVELAND 

give the citizen more for his money. It enabled him to 
ride for five cents to places which it had previously cost 
him ten cents to reach. The facts v^ere as follows : 

The elevated railroads of New York City were al- 
lowed by their charters to charge a ten cent fare for any 
distance between the Battery and Harlem River, except 
at the rush hours, when they must carry passengers at 
five cents each. The New York Legislature, yielding to 
a strong popular sentiment, passed Assembly Bill Num- 
ber 58 prohibiting the collection of more than five cents 
for any distance between these points at any hour. 

Mr. Cleveland studied the bill and found that it arbi- 
trarily deprived the Manhattan Railway Company of a 
right granted by charter. Promptly, and with character- 
istic disregard of "good politics," he prepared an elabo- 
rately reasoned veto message insisting that the bill should 
not become a law. "I am not unmindful, . . ." he said, 
"that this bill originated in response to the demand of a 
large portion of the people of New York for cheaper 
rates . . . [but] there exists a contract in favor of this 
company, which is protected by that clause of the Con- 
stitution of the United States which prohibits the pas- 
sage of a law by any state impairing the obligation of 
contracts." 

After a detailed examination of the origin and spe- 
cific nature of this contract, with the considerations which 
might be thought to have rendered it inoperative, or to 
have justified its violation, he added : "While the charters 
of corporations may be altered or repealed, it must be 
done in subordination to the Constitution of the United 
States, which is the supreme law of the land. This leads 
to the conclusion that the alteration of a charter cannot 
be made the pretext for the passage of a law which im- 
pairs the obligation of a contract." He argued that the 



THE REFORM GOVERNOR 53 

companies had fulfilled their obligations, had paid into 
the public treasury over $120,000, and had met a public 
need which previous projectors had failed to meet. "I 
am not avv^are," he said, "that the corporations have, by 
any default, forfeited any of their rights; and if they 
have, the remedy is at hand under existing laws. . . . 
The State should be not only strictly just, but scrupulously 
fair, and in its relation to the citizen every legal and 
moral obligation should be recognized. This can only 
be done by legislating without vindictiveness or prejudice, 
and with a firm determination to deal justly and fairly 
with those from whom we exact obedience." 

This argument should be read in its entirety by that 
increasing body of Americans who to-day are inclined to 
denounce property rights and to demand that the State 
disregard them. In it, Grover Cleveland took his stand 
squarely upon the solid foundation of the rights of prop- 
erty, and the people of New York sustained him. His 
clear-cut decision, wrote Andrew D. White, was "that, 
whatever his sympathies for the working people might 
be, he could not, as an honest man, allow such a bill to 
pass, and come what might, he would not. . . . Glad was 
I to see that the Governor rose above all the noise and 
claptrap which was raised about the question, went to the 
fundamental point of the matter, and vetoed the bill. I 
think his course at that time gained him the respect of 
every thinking man in the State." 

Theodore Roosevelt, then a New York Assemblyman 
of twenty-three, was conspicuous among those who had 
rallied to the "noise and claptrap" and had driven the bill 
through the New York Legislature. In the clear light 
of the Governor's veto message, however, he saw his error 
and, with the frank, generous courage which always char- 
acterized him, acknowledged it. "I have to say with 



54 GROVER CLEVELAND 

shame," he announced in an astonishing confession be- 
fore the Legislature, "that when I voted for this bill I 
did not act as I think I ought to have acted and as I gen- 
erally have acted on the floor of this House. I have to 
confess that I weakly yielded, partly in a vindictive spirit 
toward the infernal thieves and conscienceless swindlers 
who have had the elevated railroad in charge, and partly 
to the popular voice of New York. I realize that they 
[managers of the railway] have done the most incalcula- 
ble wrong to this community with their hired newspaper, 
with their corruption of the judiciary, with their corrup- 
tion of past legislatures. It is not a question of doing 
right to them. They are merely common thieves. It is 
not a question of doing justice to them. It is a question 
of doing justice to ourselves. It is a question of standing 
by what we honestly believe to be right, even if in so do- 
ing we antagonize the feelings of our constituents." 

The mind of the elder reformer had touched and 
illuminated with its clear reasoning the mind of the 
younger reformer, who at once altered his course and 
followed the Governor. "I believed," Roosevelt wrote 
in his autobiography, many years later, "the veto was 
proper, and those who felt as I did supported the veto, 
for although it was entirely right that the fare should be 
reduced to five cents, which was soon afterwards done, 
the method was unwise, and would have set a mischievous 
precedent." 

The night after the veto message, while Mr. Cleve- 
land was preparing for bed, he said to himself, as he 
afterwards confessed to Richard Watson Gilder, "By 
to-morrow at this time I will be the most unpopular man 
in the state of New York. 

"As I got into bed that night," he later declared to 
Joseph Bucklin Bishop, "I said to myself, 'Grover Cleve- 



THE REFORM GOVERNOR 55 

land, you have done the business for yourself to-night.' 
The next morning I went down to the Executive Office 
feeling pretty blue, but putting a smiling face on it. I 
didn't look at the morning papers ; I didn't think they had 
anything to say that I cared to see. I went through my 
morning mail with my secretary, Dan Lamont, pretending 
all the time that I didn't care about the papers, but think- 
ing of them all the time, just the same. When we had 
finished I said as indifferently as I could, 'Seen the morn- 
ing papers, Dan?' He said, 'Yes.' 'What have they got 
to say about me, anything?' 'Why, yes, they are all prais- 
ing you.' 'They are? Well, here, let me see them.' I 
tell you, I grabbed them pretty quickly, and felt a good 
deal better." 

There were, however, many who were little inclined 
to join in the applause. A few nights after the appear- 
ance of the veto. Governor Cleveland appeared in a 
theatre and the audience rose and hissed him. They did 
not know that at the very time of the veto he was using 
his influence to get the elevated railway to try the five- 
cent fare, of which he heartily approved. His veto was 
aimed, not at the measure, but at the method, which he 
felt to be a clear breach of public faith. Therefore, in 
utter disregard of the political penalties which he be- 
lieves such a course would entail, he defied the people 
for the people's good, not as an autocrat, but as a repre- 
sentative who considered it his duty to give the public 
the benefit of his judgment as well as of his energy. 

Before the mingled sounds of approval and denuncia- 
tion regarding the veto had died away, the Governor 
found himself compelled to take action which brought 
him into open and bitter conflict with John Kelly and 
Tammany Hall, whose influence had been so potent a 
factor in securing for him the post of Governor of New 



56 GROVER CLEVELAND 

York. State Senator Thomas F. Grady, one of Tam- 
many's favorite sons, had been a thorn in the side of the 
Cleveland administration from the day of the assembling 
of the legislature. But now, as the end of the last session 
approached, he became unbearable, boldly standing, in 
combination with the two other Tammany senators and the 
Republicans, in the way of the Cleveland program, even 
after it had received legislative sanction. 

On the last day of the session two of the Governor's 
most cherished reform measures — a bill regulating the 
duties of harbor masters, and a bill for reducing the ex- 
penses of the Immigration Commission and placing it 
under a single Commissioner — were passed, and the Gov- 
ernor at once made the nominations necessary for their 
immediate operation. These nominations the Grady- 
Republican combine managed to "hang up," thus post- 
poning the reforms at least until the convening of a new 
legislature. Mr. Cleveland's indignant protest was 
answered by a bitter personal attack from Grady, and the 
stolid refusal of the combination to allow action on the 
nominations. 

When the session ended, with the reforms inoperative, 
Kelly assured the Governor's angry followers that Grady's 
course had been without the advice of Tammany, and 
that his attack upon the Governor was disapproved and 
would be properly rebuked. He even declared himself 
in full accord with Mr. Cleveland's policies, and anxious 
to make the administration a success. Ten days later, 
however, he sent Grady with his proxy into a meeting 
of the State Committee, and announced his intention of 
renominating him for the Senate. In view of these facts, 
Mr. Cleveland drafted and sent to Kelly the following 
specific note: 



THE REFORM GOVERNOR 57 

Executive Chamber, Albany. 

October 20, 1883. 

Hon. John Kelly 
My Dear Sir: 

It is not without hesitation that I write this, I have 
determined to do so, however, because I see no reason 
why I should not be entirely frank with you. 

I am anxious that Mr. Grady should not be returned 
to the next Senate. I do not wish to conceal the fact that 
my personal comfort and satisfaction are involved in the 
matter. But I know that good legislation, based upon a 
pure desire to promote the interests of the people and 
the improvement of legislative methods, are also deeply 
involved. 

I forbear to write in detail of the other considerations 
having relation to the welfare of the party and the ap- 
proval to be secured by a change for the better in the char- 
acter of its representatives. These things will occur to 
you without suggestion from me. 

Yours very truly, 

Grover Cleveland. 

Kelly put this letter in his pocket and proceeded with 
his plans for returning Senator Grady to Albany. The 
Governor gave out no copy, and made no public com- 
ment, being content to allow the Tammany leader to 
meet the suggestion in his own way. The move for Dem- 
ocratic unity, for a union of Tammany Democrats, Irving 
Hall Democrats, and County Democrats, in the face of 
the coming election, seemed the only hope of electing 
Democratic state senators, and Governor Cleveland did 
not feel it necessary to endanger that unity by a too open 
insistence upon Grady's elimination. 

But what Cleveland felt it unnecessary to do, local or- 



58 GROVER CLEVELAND 

ganizations promptly accomplished. The Sixth District 
defied Kelly and nominated ex -Justice Timothy J. Camp- 
bell for the State Senate. Kelly next attempted to have 
Grady nominated in the Fifth District; but the leaders 
there would tolerate no such suggestion, insisting that 
Colonel M. C. Murphy was, and would remain, their 
candidate. At this point, Grady wisely declared that he 
would not run in any district, and the matter was settled, 
without the Governor's letter being called into use. The 
indignant Tammanyites, however, played into the hands 
of the grateful Republicans, by abandoning the union 
idea and making straight Tammany nominations for the 
Senate in all senatorial districts. 

In order to lend color to the story that the Governor 
had interfered in New York City politics, Kelly gave 
the Grady letter to the New York World, which pub- 
lished it on November 2d, suppressing the name of the 
recipient. In the same column appeared a statement from 
Kelly that "All the disaffection existing in the Demo- 
cratic party to-day in this country has its root and center 
in the brain of the Executive. He has allowed his per- 
sonal spite towards Senator Grady to get the better of 
his judgment, and yet Grady has done nothing to merit 
such a spirit of revenge on the part of the Governor. 
Senator Grady's reply to the Governor's message bring- 
ing the Senate to task for failing to confirm his nomina- 
tions for harbor masters, port wardens, and Commissioner 
of Immigration just before the adjournment of the last 
session was dignified and his grounds for the statements 
uttered at the time were, to my mind, well taken." With 
the exception of a brief acknowledgment of the authen- 
ticity of the Grady letter, and the statement that it had 
been written to Kelly, the Governor held his peace; and 



THE REFORM GOVERNOR 59 

in this divided condition, the New York Democracy faced 
the elections. 

The Republican factions, the Stalwarts and the Half- 
Breeds, on the other land, had for the time buried the 
hatchet, and the result was Republican unity and victory 
over a divided Democracy. Democratic majorities in 
both houses were changed to minorities, and even the 
New York World, which for three days insisted that the 
Democrats had won, was forced to admit, on November 
9th, that "The Senate will stand nineteen Republicans, 
thirteen Democrats. . . . The new Assembly will be com- 
posed of seventy-three Republicans and fifty-five Demo- 
crats." Thus Assemblyman Theodore Roosevelt came 
back to his seat, with the comfortable feeling that he was 
leading a dominant party, though ready to co-operate 
with the Governor in all measures of sound and progres- 
sive reform. 

Four days after the election, Grady, in a fiery speech 
in Tammany Hall, bitterly attacked the Governor; and 
Kelly sustained the attack by again publishing the Grady 
letter, this time in facsimile beneath the headlines : "How 
Harmony Fell Through in New York." He editorially 
interpreted the letter as an attempted interference of the 
Executive with the action of the people in choosing their 
representatives. The Tammany papers throughout the 
state, taking the cue, raised the cry of executive inter- 
ference, and the Republican press gladly followed suit. 

Until almost the end of November, Mr. Cleveland 
made no further statement concerning the Grady inci- 
dent. But, on the twenty-third, the New York Herald 
sent a special correspondent to Albany to get the Gover- 
nor's views regarding the matter. He found Mr. Cleve- 
land, for once, not only ready but eager to talk through 



6o GROVER CLEVELAND 

the press, and not disposed to measure his words too care- 
fully. 

''Mr. Cleveland sat in his large revolving chair, alone. 
He looked vigorous and buoyant, the Hancock standard 
of two hundred and fifty pounds having evidently been 
long since reached. 

" 'This letter of yours to Kelly,' said the correspon- 
dent, 'has caused a great deal of talk.' 

"The heavy chair of the Governor moved a little 
nearer as he replied: 

" 'Indeed? Well, I suppose so. Why?' 

" 'That is for you to say,' the reporter responded. 

" 'I hold,' said the Governor, 'that it was the proper 
thing, under the circumstances, to send that letter.' 

" 'You think Grady was not a proper representative 
to send back to the Senate?' queried the visitor. 

" 'I do, most assuredly,' Mr. Cleveland answered. 
'His action in the Senate has been against the interests 
of the people and of good government, and his ready 
tongue gave him power to be of great aid to bad men. I 
believed that the Democratic party could not afiford to en- 
dorse such a course, and that his rejection would be a great 
benefit to the party and to the people. What's the use 
of striving for the Senate, County Democrats argue, and 
have Grady holding the balance of power to sell us out 
to the Republicans?' 

" 'But about the letter, Governor?' asked the reporter. 

"The big armchair again moved closer, and the Gover- 
nor said : 'I sat down without the knowledge of any per- 
son and wrote to Kelly — this man who had been assuring 
me of his anxiety to give me aid in my work. I sug- 
gested, not for my personal comfort, which I did not deny 
would be subserved, but for the good of the public service, 
that he who had the power ^.o say "Go" or "Come" should 



THE REFORM GOVERNOR 6 1 

not force the nomination of Grady upon the Democrats 
of the State. No man ever acted with a more positive 
desire to serve the State than I did when I wrote that 
letter to a man claiming to be my friend. I suggested 
that he who had the power should favor some better man 
for the Senate.' 

" 'Did Kelly ever answer your letter?' asked the in- 
terviewer. 

" 'No,' replied the Governor. 'If he had been what 
I took him to be, and believed in Grady's nomination, 
he would have so written frankly in reply. He put the 
letter in his pocket, and, I understand, called in his dis- 
trict leaders in Grady's district and stated his purpose to 
nominate him. The responses understood to be from 
these leaders were that Grady could not be elected in his 
home district. Then Mr. Kelly went to the Fifth Dis- 
trict, where Colonel M. C. Murphy had been nominated 
in pursuance of an understanding between all the organ- 
izations in the district. In violation of this understanding 
he sought to renominate Grady there. Then and not till 
then did Mr. Grady announce his retirement, a retire- 
ment which was forced by the fact that he could not be 
elected. All this time my letter had been in Kelly's 
pocket. 

" 'What then? Mr. Kelly — whom many who opposed 
him in politics believed to be a gentleman — took this pri- 
vate, personal letter, written, as he knew, for his own eyes 
only, to the New York World, and requested its publica- 
tion, together with a story that that letter prevented union 
nominations in New York and would make the Senate 
Republican. At the same time Mr. Kelly's newspaper 
was openly attacking and seeking the defeat of four 
Democratic Senators outside of New York — Henry C. 



62 GROVER CLEVELAND 

Nelson, James Mackin, John C. Jacobs, and John J. Kier- 
nan, and one or more Democratic Assemblymen.' 

"When asked whether he still believed that the Grady 
letter should have been sent to Kelly, Mr. Cleveland re- 
plied: 'Most undoubtedly. The letter was . . . written 
in the interest of the people, to better the representation 
in the Senate of this State. Its reception proved to me 
that the man who had been assuring me of his friendship 
was my enemy, and that of the cause which I had es- 
poused. It gave an opportunity for this enemy to openly 
and coarsely insult me as Governor of the State. To say 
that this letter should not have been written from one 
gentleman to another — the one anxious to better the public 
service, and the other having it in his power to do it — 
is nonsense. To say that a man should go three hundred 
miles to say what he should not put on paper is the rankest 
kind of hypocrisy. This criticism can only be based upon 
the assumption that a man might say in conversation with 
another what he might afterward find it convenient to 
deny when there was no positive corroborative evidence 
to be brought forward as to the facts. It is unfortunate 
for the Democratic party that this "boss" system exists. 
While it does exist it became a necessity — a disagreeable 
necessity, I assure you — for me to recognize it, and conse- 
quently to address that letter to Kelly. However, the 
time is fast approaching when this odious system will be 
swept away and the voice of the people alone be recog- 
nized as potent in determining nominations to public 
offices.' 

"After a brief pause, the Governor added: 'The will 
of the people had, I suppose, nothing to do with the nomi- 
nation of Mr. Grady. It began and ended with the will 
of Mr. Kelly, and his election after nomination depended 
upon the same power, bounded only by the trades and 



THE REFORM GOVERNOR 63 

dickers that could be made with the so-called leaders, 
and the freedom of the field from other candidates. This 
is not a condition consistent with true democracy, and 
it is not a condition most favorable to good government; 
but I had nothing to do with creating it. I merely con- 
ceded it as I found it and wrote to the man who had the 
whole matter in his keeping. ... If this be treason I 
can't see how I can escape its consequences. I have sup- 
posed that Mr. Grady was not put in his old field because 
Mr. Campbell insisted on running in opposition to him. 
Campbell's majority indicates that the people were quite 
willing to vote for somebody besides Grady.' " 

The sequel showed that from that date Tammany Hall 
was ever ''quite willing to vote for somebody besides" 
Grover Cleveland. The Governor had incurred for his 
whole future the bitter enmity of the most powerful of 
all Democratic clubs, Tammany Hall, and that with the 
presidential year only a few weeks ahead. 

Mr. Cleveland watched the old year out with the 
satisfying belief that his first year as Governor was suc- 
cessfully completed. As he thought of the assembling 
of the Legislature on the following day, he checked up 
certain tangible proofs of definite achievement. Before 
him lay the manuscripts of forty-four executive vetoes, 
some consisting of elaborate arguments, some containing 
but a dozen lines, but each representing much patient 
labor, for, in each case he had himself investigated both 
the facts and the law involved. He counted, with equal 
pride, the number of appeals for executive clemency 
which he had examined and determined. Of the four 
hundred and forty-nine, thirty-nine were marked "Par- 
doned"; seventeen sentences had been commuted; one 
respite had been granted, and one hundred and eighty- 



64 GROVER CLEVELAND 

one prayers denied. The rest remained to be studied and 
disposed of in the months to come. 

His message for the new Legislature was ready, and 
dated January i, 1884. It was devoted wholly to state 
afifairs, and remarkable in its frankness. In his inaugural 
message he had spoken with the modesty which becomes 
a man new to office. Now, however, with a year of in- 
tensive study behind him, he wrote with singular direct- 
ness, bluntly denouncing specific abuses, in utter disre- 
gard of the feelings and of the votes of those responsible 
for them. His enumeration of his own achievements as 
Governor he presented without mock modesty, indeed, 
with conscious pride: 

''The most practical and thorough civil service reform 
has gained a place in the policy of the State," he declared. 
"Political assessments upon employes in the public de- 
partments have been prohibited. The rights of all citi- 
zens at primary elections have been protected by law. 
A bureau has been established to collect information and 
statistics touching the relations between labor and capital. 
The sale of forest lands at the source of our important 
streams has been prohibited, thereby checking threatened 
disaster to the commerce on our waterways. Debts and 
obligations for the payment of money owned though not 
actually held within the State, have been made subject 
to taxation, thus preventing an unfair evasion of liability 
for the support of the Government. Business principles 
have been introduced in the construction and care of the 
new capitol, and other public buildings, and waste and 
extravagance thereby prevented. A law has been passed 
for the better administration of the immigration bureau 
and the prevention of its abuses. The people have been 
protected by placing co-operative insurance companies 
under the control and supervision of the Insurance De- 



THE REFORM GOVERNOR 65 

partment. The fees of receivers have been reduced and 
regulated in the interests of creditors of investment com- 
panies. A court of claims has been established where 
the demands of a citizen against the State may be prop- 
erly determined. These legislative accomplishments, and 
others of less importance and prominence, may be cited 
in proof of the fact that the substantial interests of the 
people of the State have not been neglected." 

His successes had been of varied character, his con- 
flicts numerous, and his victories of gratifying frequency. 
But in his frank avowal of success, there is no sign of 
the dangerous complacency which considers the work 
done as soon as the blue prints are complete. He saw 
clearly the evils which still held firm footing in the com- 
monwealth, and pointed them out with perfect frankness. 
He told the Legislature that it was accused of recessing 
too often, and for inadequate reasons, clearly intimating 
his own sympathy with the critics. 

His comments upon the problem of corporations and 
their regulation anticipated the views later advanced by 
President Roosevelt. But Cleveland's plan called for 
state regulation, while Roosevelt's later solution was 
through Federal action. "It is a grave question," declared 
Governor Cleveland's message, ''whether the formation 
of these artificial bodies ought not to be checked or better 
regulated and in some way supervised. At any rate, 
they should always be kept well in hand, and the funds 
. . . protected by the State which has invited their in- 
vestment. While the stockholders are the owners of the 
corporate property, notoriously they are oftentimes com- 
pletely in the power of the directors and managers, who 
acquire a majority of the stock, and by this means per- 
petuate their control, using the corporate property and 
franchise for their benefit and profit, regardless of the 



66 GROVER CLEVELAND 

interests and rights of the minority stockholders. Im- 
mense salaries are paid to officers; transactions are con- 
summated by which the directors make money, while the 
rank and file among the stockholders lose it; the honest 
investor waits for dividends, and the directors grow rich. 
It is suspected, too, that large sums are spent under vari- 
ous disguises in efforts to influence legislation." 

The oft-repeated suggestion that redress is always open 
to small holders before the courts, he scornfully dismissed 
with the words: "It is a hollow mockery. . . . Under 
existing statutes, the law's delay, perplexity, and uncer- 
tainty lead to despair." Pitiless publicity was the remedy 
which he urged as a protection against dishonest tenden- 
cies. "The State," he declared, "should either refuse to 
allow these corporations to exist under its authority and 
patronage, or acknowledging their paternity and its re- 
sponsibility, should provide a simple, easy way for its 
people ... to discover how the funds . . . are spent, 
and how their affairs are conducted. . . . This might 
well be accomplished by requiring corporations to fre- 
quently file reports, made out with the utmost detail, and 
which would not allow lobby expenses to be hidden un- 
der the pretext of legal services and counsel fees. . . . 
Such requirements might not be favorable to stock specu- 
lation, but they would protect the innocent investors. 
. . . The honestly conducted and strong corporations 
would have nothing to fear; the badly managed and weak 
ought to be exposed." 

During his second year as Governor a bill was sent 
up to him which served admirably as the occasion for a 
frank expression of his views upon representative govern- 
ment and executive authority, views which should de- 
light the soul of every advocate of the short ballot. It 
provided that, after January i, 1885, "all appointments to 



THE REFORM GOVERNOR 67 

office in the city of New York now made by the Mayor 
and confirmed by the Board of Aldermen, shall be made 
by the Mayor without such confirmation," and thus 
involved enormous concentration of power in the hands 
of the Mayor of New York. 

In approving it the Governor declared: "I cannot 
see that any principle of democratic rule is more violated 
in the one case than in the other. . . . Nor are the rights 
of the people to self-government, in theory and principle, 
better protected when the power of appointment is vested 
in twenty-five men . . . than when this power is put in 
the hands of one man. ... If the chief executive of the 
city is to be held responsible for its order and good gov- 
ernment, he should not be hampered by any interference 
with his selection of subordinate administrative officers; 
nor should he be permitted to find in a divided responsi- 
bility an excuse for any neglect of the best interests of 
the people. . . . No instance has been cited in which a 
bad appointment has been prevented by the refusal of 
the Board of Aldermen ... to confirm a nomination 
[and] an absolute and undivided responsibility ... ac- 
cords with correct business principles." 

The reply to such theories has generally been, "Despo- 
tism, danger to republican government!" But Governor 
Cleveland recognized no such danger. "I can hardly 
realize the unprincipled boldness of the man who would 
accept at the hands of his neighbors this sacred trust, 
and, standing alone in the full light of public observa- 
tion . . . willfully prostitute his powers and defy the 
will of the people. To say that such a man could by such 
means perpetuate his wicked rule, concedes either that 
the people are vile, or that self-government is a deplorable 
failure." 

In republics there is a law of natural selection, not 



68 GROVER CLEVELAND 

invariably operative, but generally so. Few men reach 
the heights of power unless, in some important respects 
at least, they are gifted above their fellows. Grover 
Cleveland had the homely gift of common sense, the 
heroic gift of unflinching courage, the rare gift of long 
patience, and the divine gift of unimpeachable honesty. 
For such a man the times were calling. But the call did 
not fall upon too willing ears. Less than four months 
before the meeting of the Democratic National Conven- 
tion, he wrote to Mr. Charles S. Fairchild: 

"It is absolutely true that I have always regarded any 
suggestion of my candidacy for a place higher than the 
one I now occupy, as a serious mistake on every ground 
except merely personal ones; and on such latter grounds 
as entirely inadmissible. ... I should not feel perhaps 
that I ought to refuse to do what the sentiment of my 
party should require of me — but I believe that there is 
no such sentiment that will embarrass me; and if there is 
it can be guided in the proper direction and enlightened. 

"I have but one ambition, and that is to make a good 
Governor and do something for the people of the State 
and, and by such means, benefit the party to which I 
belong. I feel now that I shall desire to retire from 
public life at the close of my present term; and, making 
every allowance for a change of sentiment, it is abso- 
lutely certain, that an endorsement by the of^er of a second 
term will satisfy every wish I can possibly entertain, at 
all related to political life. You see I tell you frankly 
not only what I don't want, but what possibly I may 
want. My expectation is, however, that I shall be able 
to somewhat prepare the way for better things, and that 
then I shall be relieved as one who has performed his 
purpose in political affairs. With this I shall be content." 

William C. Hudson, in his Random Recollections of 



THE REFORM GOVERNOR 69 

an Old Political Reporter, says that when Mr. Cleveland's 
associates at Albany gathered around him, in the summer 
of 1884, predicting his nomination by the Democratic 
National Convention, he replied : "Go away, boys, and 
let me do my work as Governor. You're always trying 
to get me into a scrape." And Frank W. Mack has left 
us an account of a visit to Governor Cleveland, just three 
days before the State Convention, called to choose dele- 
gates-at-large to Chicago: 

"He was alone and his greeting was that of a man 
. . . who welcomed other comradeship than that of his 
own thoughts." 

" Well, you come from the outside world?' he half 
questioned. 

" 'Yes, Governor, and things seem to be coming your 
way.' 

"He turned a look, half quizzical, half apprehensive. 
There was no glint of pleased ambition in the face that 
averted itself . . . and when he sighed heavily, it was 
more than half a groan. 

" 'It looks that way to you, too, does it?' 

" 'I certainly can see no other outcome — who, by the 
way, has the distinction of sharing my views?' 

"Mr. Cleveland turned a tired face toward the great, 
sun-lighted window. Somewhere in the big features was 
an expression as of one harried. 

" 'Dorsheimer was just up here,' he spoke, 'and he 
used exactly the same words that you did.' 

" 'You seem not highly gleeful, Mr. Governor, as to 
the outlook,' I ventured. The spectacle of a man sad- 
dened by the prospect of a presidential nomination was 
new to me, and rather disconcerting. ... I looked on, 
silent. 

" 'Yes,' he muttered to himself at length ; 'yes, I be- 



yo GROVER CLEVELAND 

lieve things are coming this way . . . and I feel certain 
now that I cannot escape it.' 

^' 'Escape the nomination?' I blurted. 

" 'Yes, the nomination — escape the nomination, I say. 
Tell me this. Can you understand me — might anybody 
understand me — when I say that, if I were to indulge my 
personal impulse at this moment, I would go away into 
some forest, hide in some fastness where no man could 
reach and where this awful burden might never find 
me?' " 

In the State Convention itself, however, there ap- 
peared among the Governor's followers no trace of their 
chief's aversion. They went to Syracuse determined to 
secure a delegation committed to his nomination, and 
every device was employed to that end. Circumstances, 
however, made success impossible. From the very be- 
ginning appeared the perennial conflict between the regu- 
lar state organization and Tammany Hall, the former 
under the skillful leadership of Daniel Manning, work- 
ing for Cleveland; the latter, led by the no less astute 
John Kelly, bitterly opposing him. Both factions knew 
that the question of Cleveland's nomination would prob- 
ably depend upon whether the Manning forces or the 
Kelly forces could secure control of the New York dele- 
gation to be selected at Saratoga. Besides this great 
division in the New York Democracy, there were many 
minor divisions, causing numerous and delicate cases of 
contesting state delegates and locally supported would- 
be delegates to the National Convention. These Man- 
ning and D-Cady Herrick, Chairman of the Committee 
on Contested Seats, and a staunch Cleveland man, ad- 
justed upon the basis of the general policy of avoiding an 
open conflict with Kelly or any of his allies. 

Mr. Cleveland's administration as Governor was ap- 



THE REFORM GOVERNOR 7 1 

proved by resolution, the invariable courtesy extended by 
the New York Democracy to Democratic governors of 
New York, and understood to be merely a form. But 
when the Cleveland men urged upon Manning the pas- 
sage of a resolution instructing the delegation to vote 
for the Governor at Chicago, the leader wisely declined 
to allow the resolution to be presented, explaining that 
in his opinion it could not be carried. Instead, instruc- 
tions were adopted directing the New York delegates to 
the Democratic National Convention to vote, on the first 
ballot, for the man favored by the majority of those dele- 
gates. More than this he did not dare to attempt. Thus 
the initial vote of New York was left undetermined, to 
be settled in caucus by the delegates themselves after 
reaching Chicago. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN OF 1 884 

"Let us be steadfast in our beliefs, unmoved by clamor, 
and untempted by an inordinate desire for success at any cost 
of principle and consistency. Thus will we serve our country 
best; thus shall we know the joy that mere success can never 
know.'' 

— Grover Cleveland. 

THE Republican party faced the presidential year 
1884 with an accumulation of burdens due in part to 
long power, in part to the fact that the Civil War had ren- 
dered the opposition too long helpless. A strong oppo- 
sition is as essential to government as is the party in power, 
a fact which the British recognize in the phrases: "His 
Majesty's Government" and "His Majesty's Opposition," 
and when the opposition is silenced, careless administra- 
tion, ill-considered legislation, and the attendant evils of 
graft in high places result. 

Upon the Democrats, popular judgment had placed 
the responsibility for rebellion, and the Republican lead- 
ers of reconstruction days had not allowed them to escape 
the full contumely of the verdict, pointing the finger 
of scorn at them, as a mere faction born for failure and 
defeat. Thus had the opposition been silenced, and the 
fact that at no time since reconstruction had the Repub- 
licans won at the same time the Presidency, the Senate, 
and the House had not checked their pride, or curbed 
their increasing heedlessness. Intent on party gains, 
which at times they dangerously confused with questions 

of private interests, they had continued to capitalize error, 

72 



THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN 73 

by proclaiming that it was the Republican party which 
alone had saved the Union, freed the slave, crushed the 
menacing head of secession, and preserved a republic 
which they were therefore entitled to rule. In their 
plausible and complacent clamorings they forgot how 
many noble Democrats lay in their narrow graves in 
North and South, having given their lives for the cause of 
human freedom and a united republic. They forgot that 
Sherman and McClellan, Meade and Sheridan, Stanton 
and Chase, all staunch defenders of the nation, all heroes 
of the cause, were Democrats. Their party literature and 
their political speeches failed to recall the fact that even 
Abraham Lincoln had received his second nomination, 
not from the Republican party alone, but from a Union 
convention representing loyal Democrats and Republicans 
alike. Nor did they recall the fact that even during the 
dark days of the war Democrats had cast never less than 
forty-six per cent of the popular vote in the non-seceding 
states. 

When the opposition had again become vocal, it 
pointed at disgraceful deeds and unprecedented official 
scandals wrought under the banner of the Republicans. 
The list is too long to recount in full, but it was not too 
long for the use of Democratic partisans and reformers 
of all parties in the campaign of 1884: One Secretary 
of War had resigned in order to avoid impeachment for 
bribery. The Navy Department had been a house of ref- 
uge for the type of jobber which Mr. Cleveland had 
faced and conquered as Mayor of Buffalo and as Gover- 
nor of New York. The Whisky Ring had walked as 
purchaser in the very colonnades of the Capitol. A 
Speaker of the House of Representatives, with associates 
from both halls of Congress, was soiled by connection 
with the famous Credit Mobilier. 



74 GROVER CLEVELAND 

The cries of the distressed and humiliated apostles of 
reforms that never came are concentrated in the speech 
of Senator Hoar of Massachusetts, delivered in connec- 
tion with the proposed impeachment of Secretary of War 
Belknap in May, 1876: "My own public life has been 
a very brief and insignificant one, extending little beyond 
the duration of a single term of senatorial office. But 
in this brief period, I have seen five judges of a high court 
of the United States driven from office by threats of im- 
peachment for corruption or maladministration. ... I 
have seen the chairman of the Committee on Military 
Affairs in the House rise in his place and demand the 
expulsion of four of his associates for making sale of their 
official privilege of selecting the youths to be educated at 
our great military school. When the greatest railroad of 
the world, binding together the continent and uniting 
the two great seas which wash our shores, was finished, 
I have seen our national triumph and exultation turned 
to bitterness and shame by the unanimous reports of three 
committees of Congress — two of the House and one here, 
— that every step of that mighty enterprise had been 
taken in fraud. I have heard in the highest places the 
shameless doctrine avowed, by men grown old in public 
office, that the true way by which power should be gained 
in the Republic is to bribe the people with the offices 
created for their service, and the true end for which it 
should be used when gained is the promotion of selfish 
ambition and the gratification of personal revenge. I 
have heard that suspicion haunts the footsteps of the 
trusted companions of the President." 

It was this burden which must fall upon the Repub- 
lican candidate of 1884, a burden which only giant moral 
strength, in the shape of a candidate of spotless reputation, 
could hope to bear. When the Republican National Con- 



THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN 75 

vention assembled at Chicago, on June 3, 1884, it had 
many candidates, but one dominant leader, James G. 
Blaine, a man of brilliant powers and magnetic person- 
ality, yet one whose past touched, more or less intimately, 
the dark spots in the party's recent history. The un- 
savory memories left by the great railroad frauds still 
clung to him, although it had been his voice which had 
demanded investigation. The committee appointed had 
not managed to connect him with crime, but in the minds 
of many men his acquittal was the Scotch verdict, "not 
proven." 

In 1876, Blaine had been the strongest leader in the 
Republican Convention, receiving 351 votes even on the 
seventh and final ballot, and would almost certainly have 
been nominated, had not the memory of shocking inci- 
dents insisted upon associating themselves with his name. 
Again, in the convention of 1880, these past scandals had 
risen in men's minds and he had once more been rejected 
as a candidate. With such a record behind him, Blaine 
was quite as vulnerable as he was masterful. But despite 
his obvious disadvantage, despite the mutterings of re- 
volt among Independents and liberal Republicans bent 
on reform, the magic of the magnetic statesman, the 
"white plumed knight" as his adoring followers called 
him, now at last triumphed and Blaine was nominated. 

In placing his name before the convention. Judge 
William H. West of Ohio employed high language and 
brilliant epigram : "Four and twenty years of the grandest 
history in the annals of recorded time have distinguished 
the ascendency of the Republican party. Skies have 
lowered, and reverses have threatened. Our flag is still 
there, waving above the mansion of the Presidency; not 
a stain on its folds, not a cloud on its glory." At this the 
advocates of reform doubtless saw a vision of Oakes 



76 GROVER CLEVELAND 

Ames, John D. Sanborn, William A. Richardson, Schuy- 
ler Colfax, William W. Belknap, and a host of associates, 
and wondered at the speaker's calm assurance. 

"To it," continued Judge West, "are stretched the 
imploring hands of ten million of political bondmen of 
the South; while, above, from the portals of light, is 
looking down the spirit of the immortal martyr who first 
bore it to victory, bidding us hail and Godspeed. In 
six campaigns has that symbol of union, of freedom, of 
humanity, and of progress, been borne in triumph. . . . 
Shall that banner triumph again?" 

As soon as Blaine's nomination was assured, the ques- 
tion began to be whispered about, "What will George 
William Curtis and his followers do?" Curtis and Carl 
Schurz were the recognized leaders of the reform move- 
ment in the Republican party, and it was not difficult 
to foresee their open revolt from the leadership proposed 
for them. To their minds it was no longer a question 
of Democratic or Republican victory. "Republicans!" 
cried Schurz, "do you not see that the best Republican 
principles have already been defeated by that Republican 
nomination? Do you not see that those principles, which 
were the great soul of the Republican party, command 
you to maintain good government at any cost, be it even 
the timely sacrifice of party ascendency?" 

The final decision regarding the attitude of the Inde- 
pendents lay, of course, with the Democrats. Should 
they name a real reformer, strong Mugwump support 
was assured by the character of the Republican candidate. 
Two weeks after the adjournment of the Republican Na- 
tional Convention, Daniel Manning dispatched William 
C. Hudson to Chicago, to open the Cleveland head- 
quarters at the Palmer House and prepare to receive the 
delegations as they should arrive. Manning and Lamont 



THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN ^'J 

had provided him with a list of the New York delegates, 
arranged in three sections. The first contained the names 
of those certain to support the Governor; the second, 
those believed to be opposed to his nomination; and the 
third, with six or eight names, was labeled "doubtful 
or undeclared." "If we cannot win these doubtful men," 
he said to Hudson, "we cannot hope to make a successful 
presentation of the Governor's name. Now, I want you 
to devote yourself to these doubtful men. Find out the 
conditions surrounding them, the influences, political, 
commercial and moral, . . . and if they are inclined to 
be against us, find out why. . . . We must subject them 
to pressure . . . but first we must learn the sort of pres- 
sure that should be applied." 

Upon reaching Chicago, Hudson found that Tam- 
many Hall had anticipated his methods, for Thomas F. 
Grady was already at work there "fixing" the local press, 
but fixing it against the New York Governor, and laying 
plans to induce the convention to absolve the New York 
delegation from its instructions. Blaine engines were also 
at work, seeking to eliminate Cleveland, whom they 
counted as their leader's most formidable opponent. Skill- 
fully both forces were tampering with the Irish, seeking 
to make it appear that Grover Cleveland was the irrec- 
oncilable enemy of their race, a bigoted Presbyterian, 
trained to consider the Church of Rome "the Scarlet 
Woman" of Holy Writ. 

The work of counteracting these sinister forces was 
far from complete when, on July 8th, the Democrats 
swarmed into the city for their convention. Most con- 
spicuous among these was the Tammany Hall delegation, 
six hundred strong, headed by John Kelly, the most 
famous professional politician in America, and known 
to be there for the express purpose of defeating the 



78 GROVER CLEVELAND 

dreams of the Cleveland men who had ventured to push 
a New York Democrat without the advice and consent of 
the organization. Crowds had met the "Tigers" at the 
station, and had wondered at their numbers as they de- 
filed from their two special trains. Only a few wore 
delegates' badges, but all were there to intimidate the 
convention and defeat Cleveland. 

Although generally recognized as the leading candi- 
date, Cleveland was to these Tammany men only an enemy 
of the order, a Democrat who had refused to divide the 
spoils and must be made to pay the penalty of his insur- 
gency. They had watched his career, and were deter- 
mined to have a candidate of less downright methods. 
Nor had they forgotten the Grady letter and the Gover- 
nor's denunciation of boss rule and Tammany methods 
in his interview with the New York Herald, reported 
shortly after the state elections of 1883. 

In addition to the traditional two-thirds rule which 
Martin Van Buren and Andrew Jackson had created for 
the Democratic party in 1832, this particular convention 
declared that no state delegation should alter its vote 
until the completion of the roll call. The New York 
Convention had instructed its delegation to cast its seventy- 
two votes for the candidate favored by a majority of its 
members, but it was by no means certain whom that ma- 
jority favored. The work of putting pressure upon the 
doubtful New York delegates had not yet succeeded to 
the point of making Cleveland sure of the support of his 
own state on the first ballot. Even on the morning fixed 
for the decision Manning was in doubt, for two New York 
delegates had mysteriously disappeared, and the most 
careful search had failed to discover them. When at last 
they were found and led into the meeting of the state 
delegation, confesses Hudson, "one of them bore the 



THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN 79 

promise of ... a state office. . . . The two made the 
majority by which Cleveland was named in that caucus, 
on the last day before the meeting of the convention. . . . 
'By what small chances do we live in history.' " 

Thus, when the convention opened, Cleveland was 
sure of the entire New York vote on the first ballot, unless 
the Tammany delegates could devise some method of 
breaking down the unit rule. Accordingly, on the first 
day of the convention, Mr. Thomas F. Grady moved that 
the National Convention absolve the New York delega- 
tion from its obligation to obey the instructions of the 
State Convention. This bold move failed, and, in failing, 
strengthened Mr. Cleveland's chances, as 463 of the 792 
delegates who voted refused to sanction this movement 
to rob him of his delegates. Their refusal was due not 
so much to superior virtue as to the attitude of the Inde- 
pendent Republicans, the so-called "Mugwumps," whose 
many votes were waiting for the Democratic ballot box, 
should a candidate be nominated who could be trusted 
to carry out reform. Blaine's nomination had resulted 
in the formation of independent committees in Boston 
and New York, which had opened correspondence with 
anti-Blaine factions throughout the nation; and these had 
intimated their purpose to vote the Democratic ticket, 
should a suitable candidate be named by the Chicago 
convention. 

On the second day the real struggle began. The vener- 
able Samuel J. Tilden, in a letter to Daniel Manning, 
Chairman of the Democratic State Committee of New 
York, had definitely declared his desire that his name 
should not be considered. "I ought not," he said, "to 
assume a task which I have not the physical strength to 
carry through. . . . To reform the administration of the 
Federal Government, to realize my own ideal, and to ful- 



8o GROVER CLEVELAND 

fill the just expectations of the people, would indeed 
warrant . . . the sacrifices which the undertaking would 
involve. But in my condition of advancing years and de- 
clining strength, I feel no assurance of my ability to ac- 
complish these objects. I am, therefore, constrained to 
say, definitely, that I cannot assume the labors of an ad- 
ministration or of a canvass." 

The field was, therefore, open for younger men, and 
the first name presented was that of Senator Thomas F. 
Bayard, whom Governor Cleveland considered the most 
desirable of the candidates. Thomas A. Hendricks was 
next recognized by the chair, and presented the name of 
Joseph E. McDonald as the unanimous choice of the 
State of Indiana. Allen G. Thurman and John G. Car- 
lisle were then proposed; and Daniel Lockwood mounted 
the platform to present the name of Grover Cleveland. 
His words were effective, for they were the recital of 
achievement, and of recent achievement. 

"A little more than three years ago," he said, "I had 
the honor at the city of Buffalo to present the name of 
this same gentleman for the office of mayor of that city. 
It was presented then for the same reason, and from the 
same causes, that we present it now. It was because the 
government of that city had become corrupt, had become 
debauched, and political integrity sat not in high places. 
The people looked for a man who would represent honest 
government, and without any hesitation they named Gro- 
ver Cleveland. 

"The result of that election and of his holding that 
office was, that in less than nine months the State of New 
York found herself in a position to want just such a can- 
didate and for just such a purpose. At the State Con- 
vention of 1882 his name was placed in nomination for 
the office of Governor of the State of New York. The 



THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN 8 1 

same people, the same class of people, knew that that 
meant honest government, it meant pure government, it 
meant Democratic government, and it was ratified; and, 
gentlemen, now, after eighteen months of service there 
the Democracy of the State of New York come to you 
and ask you to go to the country, to go to the independent 
and Democratic voters of the country, to go to the young 
men of the country, the new blood of the country, and 
present the name of Grover Cleveland as your standard 
bearer." 

Instantly Mr. Grady presented the objections of the 
Tammany group, and in reply Mr. E. P. Apgar pointed 
to the reform element and warned the convention of im- 
pending defeat should the counsels of the Tammany dele- 
gates prevail. 

''There are," he said, "a hundred thousand men in the 
State of New York who do not care a snap of their finger 
whether the Republican party or the Democratic party, 
as such, shall carry the election. They vote in every 
election according to the issues and the candidates pre- 
sented. These men absolutely hold the control of the 
politics of New York in their hands. They are the balance 
of power. You must have their vote or you cannot win. 
. . . These men unitedly, to a man, implore you to nomi- 
nate . . . Governor Tilden's successor, elected Governor 
for the same causes. They ask you to place him in 
nomination in order that all elements opposed to the 
longer continuance of the Republican party in power may 
be united and make its defeat certain." 

Other nominations and other speeches followed, but 
the name of Grover Cleveland continued to be the center 
of enthusiasm, an enthusiasm which was raised to a clamor 
by the brilliant eulogium of Governor Edward S. Bragg 
of Wisconsin, who, voicing the sentiment of the young 



82 GROVER CLEVELAND 

men of the West, declared, "They love him most for the 
enemies he has made." In these words he gave a cam- 
paign cry, certain to echo and re-echo throughout a nation 
grown weary of machine rule, and ever responsive to at- 
tacks upon Tammany Hall. 

At midnight of the third day the first ballot was taken, 
and Kelly was forced by the still unrepealed unit rule 
to cast Tammany's vote for the Governor of New York 
whom he so ardently desired to defeat. Grover Cleveland 
received more than twice as many votes as any other can- 
didate, but still lacked the necessary two-thirds majority. 

First Ballot 

Total number of votes 820 

Votes necessary to nomination 547 



Cleveland 
Bayard . . 
Thurman 
Randall . 
McDonald 



392 Carlisle 27 

170 Flower 4 

88 Hoadley 3 

78 Hendricks ... I 

56 Tilden I 



A careful study of the details of this ballot greatly en- 
couraged the Cleveland men. His 392 votes came from 
thirty-eight of the forty-seven states and territories repre- 
sented in the convention. This indicated a national en- 
thusiasm, and meant that he would soon fall heir to many 
votes which had been given, on the first ballot, to favorite 
sons. At this point, to the consternation of many Cleve- 
land men, Manning effected an adjournment. He had 
noticed that many of the older delegates had left the hall, 
and feared that a second ballot might show fewer votes 
for Cleveland. 

John Kelly, Benjamin F. Butler, and other foes of the 
Governor of New York spent the small hours of the night 



THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN 83 

Staging a stampede for Thomas A. Hendricks. In con- 
nivance with the sergeant-at-arms, they packed the gal- 
leries with men pledged to raise the cry of "Hendricks for 
President," as soon as the well-known Indiana delegate 
should appear at the morning session. These plans 
Manning discovered, and skillfully nullified by sending 
a messenger to each member of the convention, warning 
him of the plot. When at the appointed hour, therefore, 
Hendricks made his appearance before the convention, 
the galleries rang with shouts and applause; but the dele- 
gations sat unmoved. Only the little knot of Tammany 
delegates joined in the cry for "Hendricks! Hendricks!" 
As the second ballot proceeded, it became more and 
more evident that the intrigues of the past night had not 
weakened the Cleveland forces. Randall's friends with- 
drew his name. McDonald's Indiana delegation was 
transferred to the column of Governor Hendricks. 
Illinois announced thirty-eight votes for Grover Cleve- 
land, and New York gave him seventy-two, despite the 
objections of Tammany Hall. As state after state was 
called, Cleveland's column steadily increased, and Thomas 
A. Hendricks's total also mounted, though less rapidly. 
When the roll call was ended, it was evident that Cleve- 
land's strength was irresistible, although he was still 
seventy-two votes short of a two-thirds majority. At once 
delegation after delegation eagerly clamored for recog- 
nition by the chair, in order that it might change its votes 
to the winning candidate; and, at one o'clock, when the 
revised ballot was read, Cleveland showed a total of 683 
votes, 136 more than the number required for nomination. 
Tammany was beaten again by Grover Cleveland, and 
the hall resounded with the cry: "We love him for the 
enemies he has made." 



84 GROVER CLEVELAND 

The following table shows the final result: 

Cleveland 683 

Bayard 8 1 >4 

Hendricks 45/^ 

Randall 4 

Thurman 4 

McDonald 2 

Governor Hendricks was then nominated as the vice- 
presidential candidate, and the convention, after ^ngmg 
"Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow," adjourned, 
to face a fiercer fight upon a wider stage. 

During the meeting of the Chicago convention. Gov- 
ernor Cleveland remained at his post in Albany, disposing 
of his executive work in his usual methodical manner. 
The World's Albany dispatch tells the story of how he 
received the news of his nomination : 

"It was I :45 a. m. when General Farnsworth heard 
what he supposed to be a cannon shot. He held up his 
hand, exclaiming, 'Listen!' The wind was westerly, but 
the next and succeeding shots were distinctly heard, and 
it was known that Cleveland was nominated, the first dis- 
patch to the Governor being received a few moments 
later. 

"General Farnsworth, after hearing the second shot, 
jumped up and exclaimed: 'They are firing a salute, 
Governor, over your nomination.' 

" 'That's what it means,' added Colonel Lamont. 

" 'Do you think so?' said the Governor, quietly. 'Well,' 
he continued, 'anyhow, we'll finish up this work.' 

"The work was resumed, and General Farnsworth 
began reading again from his proof. 

"In a couple of minutes the telephone rang, and a 



THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN 85 

voice said: 'Tell the Governor he has been nominated 
on the second ballot.' Lamont repeated the words. 

" 'Is that so, Dan?' said the Governor, as his face 
brightened up for the first time. 'By jove, that is some- 
thing, isn't it?' 

"All present at once tendered their congratulations 
and Colonel Lamont grew enthusiastic. Suddenly the 
Governor said : 

" 'Dan, I wish you would telephone the news to the 
Mansion. Sister will want to hear it. . . .' 

"Telegrams now began pouring in, and during the 
day and evening some 1,500 were received." 

That evening Albany was illuminated and the nominee 
reviewed a parade in which 5000 of his fellow citizens 
marched, after which he delivered his first message as 
a national figure: 

"Fellow-Citizens: . . . The American people are 
about to exercise, in its highest sense, their power of right 
and sovereignty. They are to call in review before them 
their public servants and the representatives of political 
parties, and demand of them an account of their steward- 
ship. 

"Parties may be so long in power, and may become so 
arrogant and careless of the interests of the people, as to 
grow heedless of their responsibility to their masters. But 
the time comes, as certainly as death, when the people 
weigh them in the balance. 

"The issues to be adjudicated by the nation's great 
assize are made up and are about to be submitted. We 
believe that the people are not receiving at the hands of 
the party which for nearly twenty-four years has directed 
the affairs of the nation, the full benefits to which they are 
entitled, of a pure, just and economical rule; and we be- 
lieve that the ascendency of genuine Democratic princi- 



86 GROVER CLEVELAND 

pies will insure a better government, and greater happi- 
ness and prosperity to all the people. 

"To reach the sober thought of the nation, and to 
dislodge an enemy intrenched behind spoils and patronage 
involve a struggle, v^hich, if we underestimate, we invite 
defeat. I am profoundly impressed with the responsi- 
bility of the part assigned to me in this contest. My heart, 
I know, is in the cause, and I pledge you that no effort of 
mine shall be wanting to secure the victory which I be- 
lieve to be within the achievement of the Democratic 
hosts. 

"Let us, then, enter upon the campaign now fairly 
opened, each one appreciating well the part he has to per- 
form, ready, with solid front, to do battle for better gov- 
ernment, confidently, courageously, always honorably, and 
with a firm reliance upon the intelligence and patriotism 
of the American people." 

Among the Democrats who had witnessed the nomi- 
nation at Chicago, the first to reach Albany was the well- 
known reporter, William C. Hudson. He at once called 
upon the Governor, and was told that the first move would 
be the preparation of a campaign document, to embody 
the outstanding achievements of the candidate's past po- 
litical career. This Hudson was asked to write, and he 
at once began the work of studying Mr. Cleveland's state 
papers and public addresses in search of material. 

Daniel Lamont, Francis Lynde Stetson, and other 
Cleveland leaders were consulted, and when the manu- 
script was complete, Hudson, with the newspaper man's 
habit of headlines, searched for a phrase to head the ap- 
peal. He recalled the fact that in the Democratic na- 
tional platform of 1876 had appeared these words: 
"Presidents, vice-presidents, judges, senators, representa- 
tives, cabinet officers — these and all others in authority 



THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN 87 

are the people's servants. Their offices are not a private 
perquisite; they are a public trust." 

In studying Mr. Cleveland's own speeches and mes- 
sages, he discovered that the same idea of trusteeship vs^as 
again and again repeated. In accepting the nomination 
for Mayor of Buffalo in 1881, Mr. Cleveland had said: 
"Public officials are the trustees of the people, and hold 
their places and exercise their powers for the benefit of 
the people." In his first annual message as Mayor of 
Buflfalo, he had declared : "We are the trustees and agents 
of our fellow citizens, holding their funds in sacred trust." 
In accepting the nomination as Governor of New York, 
he had phrased the idea even more clumsily: "Public 
officers are the servants and agents of the people, to exe- 
cute laws which the people have made and within the 
limits of a constitution which they have established." 

Clearly none of these sentences could serve as a head- 
line. Therefore, writes Hudson, "I went at the making 
of one. . . . Public Office is a Public Trust was the re- 
sult. ... It was the dogmatic form of what he had ex- 
pressed with greater elucidation. ... I took it to the 
Governor for his inspection. His eye at once went to the 
top line and, pointing to it, he asked : 

" Where the deuce did I say that?' 

" 'You've said it a dozen times publicly, but not in 
those few words,' I replied. 

" 'That's so,' he said. 'That's what I believe. That's 
what I've said a little better because more fully.' 

" 'But this has the merit of brevity,' I persisted, 'and 
that is what is required here. The question is. Will you 
stand for this form?' 

" 'Oh, yes,' replied the Governor. 'That's what I be- 
lieve. I'll stand for it and make it my own.' " 

Within a few hours the country was ringing with 



88 GROVER CLEVELAND 

"Grover Cleveland's greatest phrase: Tublic Office is a 
Public Trust.' " But throughout the campaign, and 
throughout the remainder of his life, Qrover Cleveland 
continued to express this, his most cherished conviction, 
not in the v^ords of Hudson's brilliant slogan, but in pon- 
derous phrases of his ovs^n vs^hich he persisted in consider- 
ing better because longer. 

Mr. Cleveland's nomination aroused again in the 
hearts of the advocates of "reform those hopes w^hich cam- 
paign promises had so often deceived. "The Democratic 
party," declared Carl Schurz, speaking for the reform 
group called "Mugwumps," "has never presented a can- 
didate whom any friend of good government, Democratic 
or Republican, could see step into the presidential chair 
with a greater feeling of security." From the first it was 
evident that Mr. Cleveland would receive a very large 
percentage of the votes of reformers of whatever party, 
although Theodore Roosevelt expressed the opinion; 
"Civil service is not safer in Mr. Cleveland's hands than 
in Mr. Blaine's," an opinion which he dramatically de- 
fended in an article in the North American Review a year 
later, but subsequently repudiated. 

A careful survey of Mr. Cleveland's political career 
soon convinced the Republican campaign leaders that 
nothing could be gained by turning public attention in 
that direction. His record was above criticism. He had 
administered his public trusts with admirable efficiency. 
He had never shown a trace of the spirit of the dema- 
gogue, nor had he permitted the dictation of party ma- 
chines, having frankly defied the authority of Tammany 
Hall and its masterful chief boss. He had, in the most 
literal sense, administered public office as a public trust, 
and even their ingenuity could not make a case against 
him. 



THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN 89 

For a time they turned to the old sectional issue, the 
dangers which would follow a too-controlling voice of the 
solid South. The negroes were warned that the election 
of a Democrat to the Presidency would be speedily fol- 
lowed by a restoration of slavery. Sectional hostilities 
which had begun to fade by reason of lapse of time and 
wise methods of conciliation were eagerly revived. But 
a new generation had come upon the scene, which could 
not be greatly moved by the "waving of the bloody shirt." 

The tariff issue was then attempted, and special inter- 
ests summoned to the fight. They responded eagerly, but 
tariff could not be made to appeal to the mass of voters, 
as the Democrats had reassured their minds by the plat- 
form declaration: "The Democratic party is pledged to 
revise the tariff in a spirit of fairness to all interests. But 
in making reductions in taxes, it is not proposed to injure 
any domestic industries, but rather to promote their 
healthy growth." They had also been cautious enough to 
assure voters of their determination to protect the higher 
rate of wages then prevailing. 

In New York, the Tammany organization worked in 
harmony with the special interests to the advantage of 
Blaine, until Mr. Hendricks, a good machine Democrat 
of the old school, was sent to deal with Kelly, when the 
Tammany machine consented to give a grudging support 
to the candidate of its own party. That no concession 
by way of party graft would be made to them by Mr. 
Cleveland they well knew. During the entire campaign 
he insisted that there should be no trafficking in offices, 
no yielding to pressure from machine men. "I had rather 
be beaten . . ." he wrote to Lamont, "than to truckle to 
Butler or Kelly. I don't want any pledge made for me 
that will violate my professions or betray and deceive the 
good people that believe in me." 



90 GROVER CLEVELAND 

The white light of legitimate political criticism hav- 
ing failed, the unprincipled element had recourse to the 
red light of personal defamation, and the campaign be- 
came, as Andrew D. White expressed it, "the vilest po- 
litical campaign ever waged." When we recall the days 
of 1800, when Aaron Burr and Thomas Jefiferson faced 
one another in a conflict which threatened civil war; the 
election of 1824, when Andrew Jackson and his ruthless 
partisans were fixing upon Clay the false charge of "bar- 
gain and corruption"; and the election of 1876, when the 
nation was on the verge of war over the question whether 
Tilden or Hayes had been elected, this statement seems 
extreme. But no one even casually familiar with the de- 
tails of Mr. Cleveland's first race for the Presidency can 
doubt that there were excellent reasons for this opinion. 

From the first, the Mugwump attacks upon Mr. Blaine 
were violent and ofifensively personal. "The Republican 
National Convention," Carl Schurz declared, soon after 
the nomination, "has with brutal directness . . . forced 
upon the country ... a man whose unclean record it 
cannot deny and dare not face," words which, re-echoed 
by many Mugwump speakers, left no doubt as to the 
answer to the oft-repeated question, "What will George 
William Curtis and his followers do?" Obviously they 
intended to parade the shades of old associates whom Mr. 
Blaine desired forgotten, and to interpret Scotch verdicts 
as though they had been convictions. 

Neither could there be any doubt what the Blaine 
men would do, in the face of such attacks upon their 
leader. Under the conditions, the retort courteous could 
hardly have been expected from politicians intent upon 
winning for their party the greatest elective office in the 
world. Unable, however, to point to corresponding ques- 
tionable incidents in the public life of the Democratic 



THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN 91 

nominee, they flooded the country with personal slanders 
concerning his private life, interpreting vague rumor as 
demonstrated truth, and incidental truth as typical of a 
life the general rectitude of which was beyond question. 

Mr. Cleveland generously attempted to shield his op- 
ponent from attacks of a similar character. Upon one 
occasion, his friends purchased papers to be used as the 
basis of an attack upon Mr. Blaine's private life. When 
they were placed in the Governor's hands he tore them 
into tiny bits, and threw the pieces into the fire, with the 
remark, "The other side can have a monopoly of all the 
dirt in this campaign." 

But despite Mr. Cleveland's desires to the contrary, 
scandalous stories were circulated concerning Mr. Blaine's 
private life, which even the generous efforts of his op- 
ponent could not recall. "I am glad you wrote as you 
did in regard to the Blaine scandal," Mr. Cleveland said 
to Lamont on August 14th. "I am very sorry it was 
printed, and I hope it will die out at once." It did not 
die out, however, and James G. Blaine, whose private life 
is now admitted to have been above reproach, was paraded 
in cartoon and story as "the tattooed man"; while Grover 
Cleveland became, in the hands of unscrupulous slander- 
ers, a man without honor, moral sensibility, or sense of 
shame. 

Unskilled in sophistry and new to the darker ways of 
national politics, Grover Cleveland faced his accusers, 
his slanderers, and his judges, the sovereign people, con- 
scious of the general rectitude of his life, and courageously 
determined to bear the burdens of his sins in so far as 
guilt was his. When his friend, Charles W. Goodyear, 
reported that a particularly violent attack was to be made 
upon him by the enemy press the following day, regard- 
ing an incident in his earlier life, and asked what to say 



92 GROVER CLEVELAND 

in reply, Cleveland telegraphed : "Whatever you say, tell 
the truth." And his friends told the truth, echoing his 
confession from platform, press, and pulpit. They prop- 
erly denied, however, the inferences which his enemies 
drew from his confession, insisting and establishing by 
incontrovertible evidence that in general Grover Cleve- 
land's private life was as creditable as even his enemies 
admitted his public life to have been. 

His opponents next turned their energies to the idea 
of weakening his hold upon the northern wing of the 
Democratic party, who resented the unjust accusation, so 
frequently made, that, by virtue of membership in their 
party, they had favored disunion. To make it appear 
that the Democratic candidate, though sound of health 
and of military age, had been unwilling to respond to 
Lincoln's call to arms in 1861 seemed certain to bring 
about the desertion of this element, which was essential 
to Mr. Cleveland's success. They therefore industri- 
ously circulated the story that he had dishonorably 
escaped service during the Civil War by sending a con- 
vict to fight in his place. The effect of this form of attack 
was soon apparent, especially in Grand Army circles, and 
every efifort was made to get the real circumstances of 
his exemption from service before the country. The facts 
were as follows: His t-vvo brothers, Richard Cecil and 
Louis Frederick, had enlisted in the Union Army, having 
elected Grover to remain at home. According to Mr. 
George F. Parker, Mr. Cleveland gave him the following 
account of how the decision was reached : 

"When the war came there were three men of fighting 
age in our family. We were poor, and mother and sisters 
depended on us for support. We held a family council 
and decided that two of us should enlist in the United 
States Army and the third stay at home for the support of 



THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN 93 

the family. We decided it by drawing cuts. The two 
long and one short pieces of paper were put by mother in 
the leaves of the old family Bible. She held it while we 
drew. My brothers drew the long slips, and at once en- 
listed, and I abided by my duty to the helpless women." 

Later he was drafted, and for the same reason exer- 
cised his legal right provided in the Enrollment Act of 
March 3, 1863, to hire a substitute. The hiring of the 
substitute instead of asking for exemption was to his 
credit, as the Enrollment Act contained a clause under 
which he might reasonably have claimed exemption. But 
he made no such claim, preferring to answer the call of 
his country by the payment of money which the law 
declared the honest equivalent of the personal service 
which he was unable to give. 

In view of these facts, it was not difficult for Mr. 
Cleveland to justify his conduct to anyone willing to ex- 
amine a rather complicated set of circumstances. But 
this could not be expected of the great voting public in the 
midst of a presidential campaign. The charge was easy 
to circulate, the refutation extremely difficult. In Oc- 
tober, 1884, the junior vice-commandant of the Koltes 
Post, New York City, sent the Governor a copy of a circu- 
lar letter, bearing the signatures of two war veterans, and 
making the charge that Grover Cleveland's substitute was 
a convict. In response to the vice-commandant's friendly 
request for a denial, to be circulated over the candidate's 
own signature, the following answer was promptly re- 
turned : 

Executive Mansion, Albany, Oct. 24, 1884. 
Mr. George F. Doge : 
My dear Sir: 

Your letter of the 23rd, inclosing copy of a circular 
issued at Buffalo for distribution to the veteran soldiers 



94 GROVER CLEVELAND 

of the State, is received, and I thank you for calling my 
attention to this new development of political mendacity. 

So far as this circular has any reference to me it is in 
all respects calculated to deceive, and in all prejudicial 
statements it is absolutely false. 

I was drafted the first day the draft was put in opera- 
tion. Being then assistant district attorney, I had plenty 
of opportunity to secure a convict substitute with no ex- 
pense, gnd, in fact, was urged to do so. I refused, how- 
ever, and hired a man to go who was a sailor on the lakes, 
and who had just arrived in port and been paid off. I 
don't know that he was ever arrested, and I am sure he 
was not a convict. I borrowed the money to pay him for 
going as my substitute, and I think before I paid him he 
had more money than I had. I often heard from him 
while he was in the service, and I saw him quite fre- 
quently after he returned. 

If he is alive yet I don't think either of the noble 
veterans who signed this circular would care to meet him 
after he had read it. 

I know Mr. Lyth and Mr. Oatman, whose names are 
appended to the circular, and I am astonished to find 
them in such business. 

Yours very truly, 

Grover Cleveland. 

This seemed to some of Mr. Cleveland's eager sup- 
porters a poor method of playing the game. Allowing 
their candidate to go his own way, they proceeded to hunt 
up, or make up, a substitute for Mr. Blaine, whose heart, 
they scornfully declared, "prompted him to rush to the 
front and dye his hands in the blood of rebels, but whose 
legs wouldn't move a peg." 



THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN 95 

The Irish vote in 1884 was, as now, of great impor- 
tance, especially in the State of New York, and Mr. 
Blaine was in an advantageous position with reference to 
it, as his mother was a Roman Catholic. Toward the end 
of October, after a strenuous speech-making tour in the 
Middle West, Blaine arrived in New York, where he 
received, at his quarters in the Fifth Avenue Hotel, a 
delegation of clergymen, ardent reformers who had re- 
fused to follow their Mugwump brethren into the Cleve- 
land ranks. Unfortunately for the candidate whom they 
sought to serve, their leader. Dr. Samuel Burchard, was 
primed with an epoch-making address — how epoch-mak- 
ing he little suspected. Blaine seemed to listen, but his 
mind apparently wandered; for otherwise his trained 
political judgment would surely have suppressed the 
orator's finest phrase: "We are Republicans, and don't 
propose to leave our party and identify ourselves with the 
party whose antecedents have been Rum, Romanism, and 
Rebellion." 

It was one of those alliterative sentences which should 
never be allowed to pass without careful inspection. To 
his sorrow, Blaine failed to inspect it, and it charged the 
ranks of his Irish Catholic friends and scattered them like 
"the chaff which the wind driveth away." 

"The Burchard accident," writes John Devoy in his 
pamphlet, 'Cleveland and the Irish,' "occurring at the 
last moment, turned back just enough of the Irish seceders 
to give New York by a miserably meager majority to 
the Mugwumps." "From Rum, Romanism and Re- 
bellion," said the New York World, ". . . Mr. Blaine 
proceeded to a merry banquet of the millionaires at Del- 
monico's, where champagne frothed and brandy sparkled 
in glasses that glittered like jewels. The clergymen would 
have been proud of Mr. Blaine, no doubt, if they had 



96 GROVER CLEVELAND 

seen him in the midst of the mig;hty winebibbers. It 
was Mr. Blaine's black Wednesday'." 

Of these incidents the Cleveland press, of course, made 
the 'freest possible use, interpreting them in the manner 
most likely to aid the cause of their candidate; and in 
New York there was added the wrath of Roscoe Conkling, 
who cherished a bitter personal hatred of Mr. Blaine, on 
account of a speech delivered eighteen years before, in 
which the powerful Senator from New York had been 
paraded as "a grandiloquent swell" with a "turkey-gob- 
bler strut." 

Blaine suffered also by virtue of a labor conflict then 
raging between the New York Tribune and Typographi- 
cal Union Number Six, the "Big Six," as it called itself. 
It was a vicarious atonement; for neither Blaine nor his 
party was directly concerned in the conflict, which had 
been in progress for many months. The Tribune had dis- 
charged certain union workmen, and had failed to carry 
out certain contracts made with the union. As Blaine 
was the Republican candidate, and as the Republican Na- 
tional Convention of 1884 had refused to repudiate the 
Tribune, its official organ, the "Big Six" declared against 
Blaine, and worked for Grover Cleveland, influencing, 
perhaps, enough votes to tip the scale in the close contest 
in New York State. 

When the polls opened the tension of uncertainty per- 
vaded the nation; Democrats and Republicans alike, 
while openly professing full confidence of victory, 
secretly entertained forebodings of defeat. And when the 
polls were closed, and the returns began to be circulated, 
the uncertainty increased, and with it whisperings of 
possible things worse even than defeat. 

It was soon evident that Cleveland had carried Con- 
necticut, Indiana, New Jersey, and the solid South; but 



THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN 97 

New York was essential to victory, and her choice re- 
mained uncertain. The Sun, then a greenbacker, and 
therefore no friend to Mr. Cleveland, conceded his elec- 
tion; but the Associated Press, which received returns, 
not by counties but by election districts, insisted that it 
was a Republican victory. Mr. Cleveland wisely kept his 
own counsel, and waited for a definite verdict. 

Three days later the leading New York City dailies, 
with the exception of the Tribune, agreed that Cleveland 
had been chosen. Republican politicians, however, ac- 
cepted the view of the Tribune, that Blaine was elected; 
and the Democrats became alarmed, recalling the elec- 
tion of 1876, when their opponents had snatched victory 
from their hands by counting out Samuel J. Tilden, the 
choice of the nation. "Perhaps," they whispered, "that 
game is to be tried again." When the Republican Na- 
tional Committee, in spite of the inconclusive returns, 
boldly declared, "There is no ground for doubt that the 
honest vote of this State has been given to the Republican 
candidate," hot-headed Democrats talked of violence. 
The streets of New York took on a dangerously tense at- 
mosphere as the eager crowds, waiting for further re- 
turns, called for the hanging of Jay Gould, and mani- 
fested other tendencies disconcerting to Blaine's sup- 
porters. 

Still Mr. Cleveland gave no expression of opinion, 
and worked at his tasks as Governor as though conditions 
were normal, allowing no detail of official duty to escape 
him. On the tenth day after the election, the Republicans 
were forced to concede the choice of Cleveland. And 
upon receiving the news, he remarked: "I am glad of it; 
very glad. There will now be no trouble. If they had 
not, I should have felt it my duty to take my seat any- 
how." His victory at the polls, when all the figures were 



98 GROVER CLEVELAND 

in, proved scant indeed. He had carried New York by 
only 1047 votes, though his supporters insisted that, but 
for the influence of Blaine's money, this majority would 
have been at least 50,000. 

It is quite evident, however, that the Blaine money 
was not the only money used in the campaign. The Demo- 
crats liberally financed their leaders, as a memorandum 
preserved among the papers of Colonel Lamont clearly 
proves. It is dated February 5, 1885, and presents a list 
of "Contributors to the Campaign Fund of the National 
Democratic Committee, 1884." The largest single item 
is: "William H. Barnum, $27,500." William L. Scott, 
of Erie, Pennsylvania, is credited with a gift of $24,000, 
Cooper-Hewitt $20,000, Oswald Ottendorfer $18,000, R. 
P. Flower and D. Willis James $16,000 each, William 
C. Whitney $15,250, A. P. Gorman $14,908.25, Daniel 
Manning, Albany, $13,675. The memorandum totals 
$453,126.61, a large sum for the year 1884; but the list 
includes no contributions from Grover Cleveland, 
although a letter to Bissell shows that he contributed at 
one time $5,000. "I send you . . . my check on Albany 
for $3,500," he wrote on September i ith, "and on Buffalo 
for $1,500, making up my subscription to the National 
Committee." It is, therefore, fair to assume that even 
the grand total of almost half a million dollars does not 
tell the whole story of the campaign funds of the 
Democrats. 

Mr. Cleveland's letters, from the date of the first men- 
tion of his name in connection with the Presidency, show 
how fully he realized the burden of responsibility which 
goes with that office; and after his election, he spoke at 
times like a doomed man. "I look upon the four years 
next to come," he wrote to Bissell, in acknowledging his 
victory, "as a dreadful, self-inflicted penance for the good 



THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN 99 

of my country. I can see no pleasure in it, and no satis- 
faction, only a hope that I may be of service to my 
people." 

The first mad rush of triumphant Democrats seeking 
office appalled him. "I am sick at heart and perplexed 
in brain during the most of my working hours," he wrote 
to Bissell, on December 25th. "I almost think the pro- 
fessions of most of my pretended friends are but the means 
they employ to accomplish personal and selfish ends. It's 
so hard to discover their springs of action, and it seems 
so forlorn to feel that on the question as to who shall be 
trusted, I should be so much at sea. I wonder if I must 
for the third time face the difficulties of a new official 
life almost alone.'' 



CHAPTER V 

ALONE IN THE WHITE HOUSE 

"The President, and the President alone, represents the 
American citizen, no matter how humble or in how remote a 
corner of the globe." 

— Grover Cleveland, 

A FEW days after his election to the Presidency, 
while walking with an intimate friend in the out- 
skirts of Buffalo, Mr. Cleveland exclaimed, "Henceforth 
I must have no friends." From that moment, in his ap- 
parently simple personality, men discovered two per- 
sonalities — the one, as of old, genial and approachable, 
with a capacity for delightful intimacies; the other, an 
official self, austere, forbidding. He loved his friends, 
but when conscious of an attempt to capitalize friend- 
ship, to gain executive favors by virtue of personal con- 
nections with the President of the United States, the 
kindly, often humorous, lines of his face hardened into 
bronze, and he became cold and unapproachable. He 
would, in such humor, lose a friend or make an enemy 
without apparent emotion, for his attitude toward ap- 
pointments was unchangeable: "A personal use of a 
trusteeship is at war with its spirit, and gratifying my- 
self and my friends by the use of public offices, simply 
because I have the power to do so, would be malfeasance 
in fact, though I was accused of it nowhere except in my 
own conscience." 

But though no pressure, however strong, could make 
him recede from this determination, he gladly paid 

100 



ALONE IN THE WHITE HOUSE lOI 

tribute to friendship wherever it could be done without 
sacrifice of these standards. During the winter preceding 
the inauguration, a distinguished lawyer who had ar- 
dently supported his campaign was recommended for 
the post of Attorney General. He had the backing of 
many of the new President's intimate associates, and the 
plea was advanced that one of his near relatives, now 
dead, had been a law partner of the President in the 
Buffalo days. But the appeal fell on deaf ears. The 
President-elect did not consider the candidate the best 
choice for the high office which he sought, and declined 
to appoint him. The cry of ingratitude, so often heard 
by Mr. Cleveland during his troubled days at Washing- 
ton, was of course raised, but he calmly went his way, to 
all intents and purposes unmoved by the attacks which in 
truth deeply grieved him. 

Some time later, a friend of the dead partner sought 
out the latter's grave in a cemetery three hundred miles 
from Buffalo and found that a handsome monument had 
been erected over the grave which bore every evidence 
of regular care and attention. He inquired of a gardener 
as to who was responsible, and learned that three years 
before Grover Cleveland had ordered the monument and 
had set aside a stated sum for the care of the grave. Gro- 
ver Cleveland, the man, had paid this loving tribute to 
his dead friend, out of his own purse; but Grover Cleve- 
land, the President, declined to honor a draft upon the 
people's offices made in his name. And under the sting- 
ing charge of ingratitude he did not reveal the secret of 
that dead friend's grave. 

It has been said that a President is known by the ap- 
pointments he makes. And this is partly true. A small 
President is likely to choose small men to surround him, 
unwilling to invite the co-operation of great minds, lest 



102 GROVER CLEVELAND 

his own be dwarfed by comparison. As an appointing 
agent Mr. Cleveland was not inerrant, but his mistakes 
came from no such petty jealousies. The average of his 
appointments is high as compared with any executive of 
his time, nor did he in his choice of men make secret con- 
cessions to standards which he was unwilling to profess 
openly. 

He began selecting a Cabinet as soon as the November 
elections were over, his plan being to allow the names of 
contemplated appointees to reach the public early, in 
order that there might be the fullest criticism before they 
were sent to the Senate for confirmation. Like Lincoln, 
he had directed his friends to make no bargains which 
would bind him if elected. Like Lincoln, when elected, 
he found that bargains had been made which he now felt 
in honor bound to recognize, even against his own desires. 

Bayard, for example, if we may accept the testimony 
of St. Clair McKelway, he wished to appoint as Secre- 
tary of the Treasury; but, these covenants preventing, 
Bayard was instead made Secretary of State, in which 
great office he interpreted the best traditions and the 
loftiest ideals of the nation. After the turmoil of office 
was over, after Mr. Bayard was dead, his Chief thus re- 
corded his mature estimate of the man whom he had 
chosen to lead in his first Cabinet: "Nothing good said 
of Mr. Bayard could be beyond the truth, and his life 
furnishes the best possible example of patriotic devotion 
to country and duty." And the American people have 
very generally accepted that verdict. 

William F. Vilas of Wisconsin was among the first 
to be recommended for a cabinet position. As Chairman 
of the National Democratic Convention, and Chairman 
of the Notification Committee sent officially to inform 
Mr. Cleveland of his selection as the party candidate in 



ALONE IN THE WHITE HOUSE 103 

1884, he was distinctly a national figure; and in addition 
his strength lay chiefly in the great Northwest, where the 
Democrats were eager to hold the ground already gained. 
Mr. Cleveland therefore appointed him Postmaster 
General. 

William C. Endicott, whom he chose for Secretary of 
War, was backed by the Massachusetts Independents. He 
had been the Democratic candidate for Governor in 1884, 
and, as a Judge on the Supreme Bench of the state, he 
had proved his ability, his soundness, and his breadth 
of view. 

For Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Cleveland selected 
William C. Whitney, who had shown such consummate 
skill during the campaign in New York that he had come 
to be looked upon as a Democratic machine politician, 
in spite of the fact that he had given effective aid to Tilden 
in destroying the Tweed Ring. He was a man of inde- 
pendent means, excellent education, and high social po- 
sition, widely known in many and varied circles, including 
that of the sportsman. 

In 1882, while in Syracuse as a delegate to the New 
York State Democratic Convention, Mr. Whitney had run 
in to advise with "Dan" Manning as to the best means of 
defeating Flower for the governorship. As he entered 
Manning's office, he noticed a large, portly gentleman 
comfortably seated, and evidently waiting for an inter- 
view. Bowing politely, Whitney passed on to Manning's 
chair, where he urged the latter to unite with the county 
Democracy of New York and nominate "that man Cleve- 
land from Buffalo." He later learned to his surprise 
that, at the interview, "that man Cleveland from Buffalo" 
had himself been present, in the person of the portly gen- 
tleman in the chair. 

Through the influence of Mr. Tilden, Whitney had 



I04 GROVER CLEVELAND 

been appointed Corporation Counsel of New York City, 
in which post he had made a brilliant record. His private 
fortune, supplemented by his marriage with a daughter 
of the Standard Oil magnate, Henry B. Payne, enabled 
him to play politics with a liberal hand, and in 1884 he 
had been an important member of the inner group which 
had engineered the Cleveland nomination. His wealth, 
his connections, and his effective partisan services were^ 
of course, pleaded as reasons against his nomination. 
But Mr. Cleveland, after carefully examining the situa- 
tion, felt that Mr. Whitney's appointment was for the 
best interests of the country, and his name remained on 
the list despite protests. 

For two of the three remaining cabinet posts, the 
Department of the Interior and the office of Attorney 
General, Mr. Cleveland turned to the ranks of the late 
Confederate Government, thereby emphasizing his deter- 
mination that, so far as his Administration was concerned, 
there should no longer be a North and a South. Lucius 
Q. C. Lamar, his choice for Secretary of the Interior, had 
drafted the Mississippi Ordinance of Secession in 1861, 
and had served for two years in the Confederate Army. 
But he had been wise enough to recognize the end when 
it came, and in his services to his reunited country had 
won a position which entitled him to recognition as a 
representative of the new South. The announcement 
that his name was considered for such a post was a signal 
for a flood of protests. "As a Union soldier," wrote one 
protestant, "... I beg to remind the President-elect that 
the Pension Bureau, with its three hundred thousand pen- 
sion claims of Union soldiers still unsettled, is in this de- 
partment, and I can imagine what will be said all through 
the North and at every Grand Army Post over such a 
selection." The President-elect was himself quite able 



ALONE IN THE WHITE HOUSE 105 

to imagine what would be said, but he was not thinking 
in terms of Grand Army posts, but of a nation reunited 
after civil war. Lamar remained on the slate, and, as 
Cabinet officer and later as a Supreme Court Judge, he 
fully justified the courageous independence which had 
given him his chance. Of him. Chief Justice Fuller de- 
clared : "His was the most suggestive mind that I ever 
knew." 

In the selection of Augustus H. Garland as Attorney 
General, President Cleveland did even greater violence 
to the opinions of such men as could not forget, such 
victors as thought it wise to be ungenerous. Garland, 
once Governor of Arkansas and now a United States 
Senator, had been a member of the Confederate Congress. 
But, like Lamar, he had accepted the verdict of trial by 
combat, and had worked wisely and effectively toward a 
reunion of hearts, North and South. "To him," wrote 
fifty members of the Arkansas Legislature, "we are most 
indebted for our restoration to an equal place in the 
Union, and equal representation in the national councils." 
And Samuel J. Tilden emphasized his fitness for office by 
expressing the opinion that he ought not to be taken out 
of the Senate at the beginning of a Democratic ad- 
ministration. 

Daniel Manning was selected as Secretary of the 
Treasury, partly in fulfillment of campaign promises 
made contrary to Mr. Cleveland's orders, but not entirely 
so. During the winter and spring following the election, 
letters urging his appointment had come from many men^ 
representing varied interests and shades of political opin- 
ion — bank presidents, lawyers, politicians, journalists. In 
addition, Mr. Cleveland knew, from personal contact, 
that Manning was both able and honest, a type of leader 
whom he delighted to honor. When, therefore, at the 



I06 GROVER CLEVELAND 

very end of the process of cabinet making, Mr. Cleveland, 
for the first time, asked Mr. Tilden's opinion, he was 
quite ready to concede what the latter asked — and Man- 
ning, to quote from a letter of Tilden to Watterson, "was 
coerced into the Treasury." In a letter to McKelway, 
Manning thus avowed his distaste for the position: "I 
came here unwillingly in the performance of a duty that 
carried with it, so far as I am concerned, no tinge of 
ambition. I shall go on, doing that duty ... at a very 
considerable sacrifice, only for the sake of the party, whose 
principles I inherited and came to love as I grew to the 
years of manhood. I would very gladly return home, any 
day, to private life. ... I shall eagerly welcome the 
opportunity for such a return whenever it occurs, the 
sooner the better." Through his close personal relations 
with Mr. Manning, Mr. Tilden exerted a strong influence 
upon the financial policies of the Cleveland Administra- 
tion, and these all looked toward the preservation of the 
gold standard. 

In these cabinet selections, which were complete be- 
fore Inauguration Day, the President-elect, while show- 
ing respect for the varied elements which composed his 
party, made it quite clear that he sought a truly national 
body of counselors, men able to think for all sections; 
for Mr. Cleveland was determined to be no mere party 
President. It was also a significant fact that among them 
was not a single man with whom he had been upon terms 
of personal intimacy. 

His choice was satisfactory to the country at large, in 
spite of the interpretation of a lady who wrote, a few 
weeks later: "Mr. President Cleveland, I would love 
to have something from the White House. Please send 
me scraps of your cravats and your cabinet to make a 
block in my crazy quilt." Of the many tempting offers of 



ALONE IN THE WHITE HOUSE lOJ 

help which he was obliged to decline, the following is 
an example, somewhat ambiguous, but undoubtedly sin- 
cere: "If you could see your way clear and the right 
material in a colored man for your Cabinet, you would 
thereby clinch the lip-service of the Democrats as scouted 
by the Republicans, and attach the race to the party which 
would be to the advantage of both." 

As Inauguration Day approached. Gold Democrats, 
especially the old Democratic leader, Samuel J. Tilden, 
brought pressure to bear to induce Mr. Cleveland to 
state publicly his determination to maintain the gold 
standard. To him such a declaration seemed unnecessary, 
as he was already fully committed to the cause which they 
had at heart. At length, however, only eight days be- 
fore his inauguration, at the earnest solicitation of Tilden 
and other sound money leaders, he consented to sign a 
letter prepared for him by Manton Marble. He knew, 
of course, that Presidents often delegate the task of draft- 
ing important papers, but it was a practice quite foreign 
to his own methods, and, although the letter accurately 
expressed his views, he consented with reluctance: 

To THE Hon. A. J. Warner and others, Members of 

THE Forty-eighth Congress : 
Gentlemen : 

The letter which I have had the honor to receive from 
you invites, and indeed obliges, me to give expression to 
some grave public necessities, although in advance of the 
moment when they would become the objects of my offi- 
cial care and partial responsibility. Your solicitude that 
"^y judgment shall have been carefully and deliberately 
formed is entirely just, and I accept the suggestion in the 
same friendly spirit in which it has been made. It is 
also fully justified by the nature of the financial crisis 



Io8 GROVER CLEVELAND 

which, under the operation of the act of Congress of 
February 28, 1878, is now close at hand. 

By a compliance with the requirements of that law 
all the vaults of the Federal Treasury have been and are 
heaped full of silver coins, which are now worth less than 
eighty-five per cent of the gold dollar prescribed as the 
unit of value in section 16 of the act of February 12, 
1873, and which, with the silver certificates representing 
such coin, are receivable for all public dues. Being thus 
receivable, while also constantly increasing in quantity 
at the rate of $28,000,000 a year, it has followed of neces- 
sity that the flow of gold into the Treasury has steadily 
diminished. Silver and silver certificates have displaced 
and are now displacing the gold in the Federal Treasury 
now available for the gold obligations of the United States 
and for redemption of the United States notes called 
"greenbacks." If not already encroached upon, it is 
perilously near such encroachment. 

These are facts which, as they do not admit of differ- 
ence of opinion, call for no argument. They have been 
forewarned to us in the official reports of every Secretary 
of the Treasury, from 1878 till now. They are plainly 
affirmed in the last December report of the present Sec- 
retary of the Treasury to the Speaker of the present House 
of Representatives. They appear in the official docu- 
ments of this Congress, and in the records of the New 
York Clearing House, of which the Treasury is a mem- 
ber, and through which the bulk of the receipts and 
payments of the Federal Government and country pass. 

These being the facts of our present condition, our 
danger, and our duty to avert that danger, would seem 
to be plain. I hope that you concur with me and with 
the great majority of our fellow citizens, in deeming it 
most desirable at the present juncture to maintain and 



ALONE IN THE WHITE HOUSE 109 

continue in use the mass of our gold coin, as well as the 
mass of silver already coined. This is possible by a pres- 
ent suspension of the purchase and coinage of silver. I 
am not avv^are that by any other method it is possible. It 
is of momentous importance to prevent the two metals 
from parting company; to prevent the increasing displace- 
ment of gold by the increasing coinage of silver; to pre- 
vent the disuse of gold in the customhouses of the United 
States in the daily business of the people; to prevent the 
ultimate expulsion of gold by silver. 

Such a financial crisis as these events would certainly 
precipitate, were it now to follow upon so long a period 
of commercial depression, would involve the people of 
every city and every state in the Union in a prolonged 
and disastrous trouble. The revival of business enter- 
prise and prosperity so ardently desired, and apparently 
so near, would be hopelessly postponed. Gold would be 
withdrawn to its hoarding places, and an unprecedented 
contraction in the actual volume of our currency would 
speedily take place. 

Saddest of all, in every workshop, mill, factory, store, 
and on every railroad and farm the wages of labor, already 
depressed, would suffer still further depression by a scal- 
ing down of the purchasing power of every so-called 
dollar paid into the hands of toil. From these impending 
calamities, it is surely a most patriotic and grateful duty 
of the representatives of the people to deliver them. 

I am, gentlemen, with sincere respect, your fellow- 
citizen, 

Grover Cleveland. 

Albany, February 24, 1885. 

A few days after this letter appeared, Mr. Tilden 
wrote with complacent brevity: 



no GROVER CLEVELAND 

Confidential 

Graystone, Yonkers, N. Y. 

February 28, l88S- 

Dear Mr. Cleveland : 

Your silver letter is absolutely perfect. It is the only 
silver thing I know of that transmutes itself into gold. 
Very truly yours, 

S. J. Tilden. 

But it was the last time Tilden was ever able to hol4 
the reins. From this time, while treating the famous 
ex-party chief with all due courtesy, Mr. Cleveland made 
it quite evident that he would tolerate no dictation, no 
controlling influence, a course which caused Tilden to 
describe him as "the kind of man who would rather do 
something badly himself than have somebody else do it 
well." Years later, in a conversation with George F. 
Parker, Mr. Cleveland referred to the incident and 
added: "Whether as Mayor, Governor, or President, that 
was the first and last time I ever signed anything, either 
enunciating or advocating a policy, which was not written 
wholly by myself." 

In his inaugural address, Mr. Cleveland promised 
fidelity to sound finance and to civil service reform, jus- 
tice to the Indian, fair play to the American laborer, and 
an efficient and honest administration in the interest of all 
the people. 

The oath of office was administered by Chief Justice 
Waite, who used for the ceremony the little Bible which 
Mr. Cleveland kept always at hand, and upon the fly-leaf 
of which appear the words: "My son, Stephen Grover 
Cleveland, from his loving Mother." Colonel Lamont 
once said that he had first seen this Bible in Mr. Cleve- 
land's law office in Buffalo. Later it was kept on the 



ALONE IN THE WHITE HOUSE III 

bureau in his bedroom; but while he was President it 
occupied the upper left-hand drawer of the desk that 
was presented to the President of the United States by the 
Queen of England as a memento of the Sir John Franklin 
expedition to the Arctic regions. Before returning this 
precious book to the President, the Clerk of the Supreme 
Court entered this record on the flyleaf: "It was used to 
administer the oath of office to Grover Cleveland, Presi- 
dent of the United States, on the fourth of March, 1885." 

The inauguration formalities finished, the Cabinet 
confirmed, and the departments handed over to their 
new executive heads, Grover Cleveland began a regime 
simple enough to delight the heart of a Thomas Jeffer- 
son, honest enough to gladden the souls of a George 
Washington or an Abraham Lincoln, businesslike enough 
to give a thrill of pleasure to the genius of an Alexander 
Hamilton, but old-fashioned enough to be, to a genera- 
tion educated by the modernism of Theodore Roosevelt', 
almost unbelievable. The President at first had no ste- 
nographer, and a single telephone answered the calls of 
the entire White House establishment. At the end of 
the regular hours of business, when the clerks and attend- 
ants had retired, its imperious summons was often 
answered by the President himself if William, the steward 
and general domestic head of the establishment, happened 
to be out of earshot; for these two shared the distinction 
of being the members of the establishment who kept no 
hours. According to Mr. Cleveland's philosophy, all 
of the President's time belongs to the public, without 
reservation. 

Within the domain of his lawful tasks, William was 
allowed undisputed sway and he exercised his authority 
rigorously. Once, when a very young bride and groom 
were the only guests at the White House, the President, 



112 GROVER CLEVELAND 

having noticed a worn and shabby dress suit laid out 
ready for him to put on, inquired of William why he had 
not selected a better one. William's laconic reply was: 
"It is plenty good enough for the occasion." And the 
President, without further protest, put it on and went 
down to dinner. 

Such encounters were by no means infrequent, but 
the President had long ago committed himself to the 
political doctrine of division of powers, and he felt that, 
after all, William was within his right. Upon one sultry 
spring evening, the President suddenly became aware 
of the fact that he was wearing a very heavy winter coat 
which his factotum had hung on the rack for him. As 
he mopped his brow, he remarked: "He is the most 
economical man I have ever known. He is bound I shall 
get a few more wears out of this coat before the hot 
weather comes." 

The luxurious dinners prepared by the White House 
chef were usually accepted by the President in the same 
resigned spirit, though he sometimes rebelled, and in- 
sisted upon simpler fare. Wine was never served, unless 
guests were at the table. "What do you suppose I did 
the other day?" he once asked an intimate friend who 
was visiting the White House. "We sat down to a very 
delicious dinner, but it did not appeal to me. All at 
once, through the open window, there came an old and 
familiar odor. I said, 'William, what is that smell?' 'I 
am very sorry, sir,' he replied, 'but that is the smell of 
the servants' dinner.' 'What is it — corned beef and cab- 
bage? Well, William, take this dinner down to the 
servants and bring their dinner to me,' I said. And I had 
the best dinner I had had for months." ^'Bceuf come au 
cabeau" was his French for this dish. 

When the first of each month came, the President in- 



ALONE IN THE WHITE HOUSE 113 

sisted upon performing in person the unnecessary labor 
of making out checks for personal and household ex- 
penses, and going over the accounts with William. If 
Senators or other dignitaries called at this inauspicious 
moment, they had to submit to postponement. "I guess 
I have to take time to pay my bills," he would remark 
to William, and continue the work. 

The glamour of his surroundings impressed him little, 
except to accentuate his feeling of loneliness, and even 
this was enlivened by his unfailing sense of humor. "It 
is nearly one o'clock," he wrote Bissell. "Colonel Lamont 
is gone and William too. If I did not keep one of the 
waiters here, I should be absolutely alone in the upper 
part of the house. That's splendor for you, sleeping 
alone in the White House." 

He was averse to the idea of employing public prop- 
erty for his personal enjoyment, and never made any use 
of the Dispatch, a yacht which had been looked upon as 
the President's pleasure boat. When he went fishing, as 
he often did when confronted by any particularly diffi- 
cult problem, he used a lighthouse tender, and insisted 
upon paying all expenses out of his private purse. 

"The President's life," wrote the Baltimore Sun cor- 
respondent in July, 1887, "is . . . very much like that of 
any active business man having large and important in- 
terests committed to him. There is a difference, however, 
in the fact that Mr. Cleveland does an amount of work 
much in excess of that performed by the average first- 
class business man. 

"The President's whole indoor life is under one roof. 
He transacts all the affairs of this great nation which 
come under his jurisdiction separated only by a few feet 
from the apartments where he eats, sleeps, and is supposed 
to enjoy his rest. The business man who has an immense 



114 GROVER CLEVELAND 

manufacturing establishment, a great railroad, a bank, or 
other large interests in his hands, no matter how en- 
grossed he may be or how much time he devotes, finds 
at last the hour when the door of the counting room or 
the office is closed upon him, and he can go home — 
home not infrequently miles away, where business and 
business cares can be shut out, and the tired brain can 
solace itself in the lighter joys which cluster around the 
home which is free from invasion. Not so with the Presi- 
dent. He is never free from interruption until his head 
is on his pillow, the lights are out and the doors barred." 

Mr. Cleveland had always been an early riser, and this 
habit continued at the White House. Eight o'clock in 
winter, and often a much earlier hour in summer, found 
him at breakfast, and by nine he was at his desk. From 
nine to ten he devoted himself to his able and accom- 
plished private secretary, Dan Lamont, later Secretary 
of War, who understood, far better than did his Chief, 
the art of disposing of the piles of letters important 
enough to require the President's personal attention. 

Each Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, from ten 
until one, and Tuesdays and Thursdays from ten to twelve, 
he received, like the old Roman tribunes of the people, all 
those demanding an audience, giving precedence, how- 
ever, to cabinet members, heads of bureaus, and members 
of Congress. In addition, except in warm weather, he 
held three public receptions a week, devoting to them 
nominally the half hour from one-thirty to two; but he 
invariably insisted that the period should be extended so 
as not to disappoint anyone who had entered the line 
before the hour of two. Mondays he reserved for cabinet 
officers, being on that day accessible to them at any hour. 

His regular cabinet meetings were set for noon on 
Tuesdays and Thursdays, and they rarely adjourned be- 



ALONE IN THE WHITE HOUSE ll^ 

fore three. In these meetings there were no set speeches, 
and no votes were taken, the President's theory being that 
in a cabinet there are many voices, but one vote. Each 
member was free to express his views; but when the 
illumination of frank comment and informal discussion 
was over, it was the President who must make the decision. 

Luncheon was a necessity which had to adapt itself 
to more important matters; but his luncheon hour, in 
theory at least, was two o'clock, and before three he was 
back at his desk, disposing of the miscellaneous accumu- 
lations of the morning. During those strenuous early 
afternoon hours, visitors were rigorously excluded, cabi- 
net officers excepted. At five or six, if all went well, it 
was his habit, often only a theoretical habit, to go out 
for a breath of air in preparation for dinner at seven. 
Regular exercise was a human frailty in which he never 
indulged, even theoretically. During public receptions 
he was always on his feet, moving from one group to 
another, and his right arm had scant opportunity to lose 
its cunning as it daily resisted the grip of a multitude. 
But within his quarters there were no dumb-bells, Indian 
clubs, punching-bags, or even masters of massage, and 
the many stories purporting to be descriptions of the 
President's exercises to reduce his weight were pure 
inventions. 

A Washington correspondent of the period informs 
us that the President's breakfast consisted of "rolls and 
steak, ham and eggs, fish, chops, and coffee, preceded by 
the fruits of the season, and oatmeal and cream." That 
he covered the whole of this menu at any one meal is 
highly improbable, but his selections were undoubtedly 
generous in scope, as nature had endowed him with a 
robust appetite and a liking for heavy dishes. This fact 
was responsible for most of the physical discomforts of 



Tl6 GROVER CLEVELAND 

his life. His menu was heavy, his work was heavy, and 
he took no exercise. He was, therefore, often racked with 
pains which played agonizingly throughout the broad 
regions of his vast frame. Had he been more prudent, 
he might have preserved unimpaired the marvelous con- 
stitution with which nature had endowed him, but busy 
men with perfect constitutions seldom think of such things 
until too late. 

During his first year at the White House, being un- 
married, he kept his social engagements at a minimum. 
Public dinners, with himself as the honored guest, he 
abhorred, for he hated incense, and despised the semi- 
intellectual exercise of after-dinner speaking. The eve- 
nings he, therefore, almost invariably spent at his desk. 
He had entered the White House resolved that each day's 
work should be finished before the hour of retirement, 
and in consequence that hour not infrequently failed to 
come at all. His ordinary working day extended till two 
or three in the morning, but dawn often crept in through 
the east windows of the White House to find the people's 
servant still intent upon the people's business. 



CHAPTER VI 

FACING THE POLITICAL BREAD-LINE 

"Reward for partisan activities is one mode of misappropria- 
tion of public funds." 

— Grover Cleveland. 

LOUIS XIV once remarked that when he bestowed an 
office he made one ingrate and an hundred malcon- 
tents. The first part of this statement was doubtless un- 
just, but the second is in the nature of a general proposi- 
tion, even truer of republics than of autocracies. The 
expectant official is the pest of politics, the thorn in the 
side of every President, of whatever character, theory, or 
party. The poor of politics, he is ever at hand. "His 
work begins at God knows when, and his work is never 
through." Lincoln found him almost unbearable. Gar- 
field, after only a brief experience of his persecutions, 
cried in despair: "My God! what is there in this place 
that a man should ever want to get into it?" But for 
Grover Cleveland, the first Democratic Chief Executive 
since the days of James Buchanan, he provided a fearful 
testing. From the moment that the electoral colleges were 
chosen, awaiting neither the formal election of January 
nor the inauguration of March, he came by the thousands, 
pleading service, pleading poverty, pleading fitness, ad- 
vancing every argument which could conceivably afifect 
the mind or stir the emotions of the dispenser of patron- 
age. At times he was blunderingly camouflaged, at times 

blatant, and often so illiterate as to be almost unreadable. 

117 



Il8 GROVER CLEVELAND 

Here a Congressman urges the appointment of some 
faithful, incompetent henchman, "not on his account per- 
sonally, but for the good of the department." There a man 
asks to be made a minister as "I do not care to lead an 

idle life," and adds: "Mrs. , too, wishes to go 

abroad as our daughter . . . requires treatment which 
can be best obtained in Europe." In answering this let- 
ter Mr. Cleveland might well have adapted the famous 
reply of Lincoln to a similar plea: "I'm sorry that there 
are eight other applicants for that place and they are all 
sicker than your man." Another, desirous of "a place in 
the Treasury," and fearful of the miscarriage of the 
"answer by return of male, because I need the office quick 
as I have a wife with seven children for support and I 
am out of menes and money too," enclosed an envelope 
marked, "in case you could not spel my name correctles 
I send you a invelope." 

Within two weeks of his arrival at the White House 
Mr. Cleveland had received several hundred such appli- 
cations for positions, including the following: 

My Lord 

I, the undersigned come most humbly and most re- 
spectfully to the feet of Your Most Gracious Majesty's 
throne, to offer this humble petition of mine to Your 
Most gracious Presidential Majesty. . . . 

Your Most Gracious Presidential Excellence that so 
worthily and so gloriously occupying the throne of His 
forefathers, shines as the brightest star in the Heavens, 
among the crowned Heads of this World. . . . 

Receive me, My Lord, as your soul-son. 

Please to train this poor flower in one of your most 
celestial gardens, to blossom there, till the end of his life. 



FACING THE POLITICAL BREAD-LINE II9 

Dear Mr. President: 

Permit me to Salute, Greet, Love and Congratulate 
you. I have the honor of applying to Your Excellency to 
a place in the due exercise of your high prerogative to 
humbly ask Your Excellency for an assignment after 
your private secretary or a position as Master of Cere- 
monies, Steward, or Door Keeper. I am a single man 
and was never married — prematurely Snowy headed and 
Bearded, I wish to live in Washington and make myself 
agreeable with everybody that I come in contact with, 
and will serve you with a perfect heart without vanity, 
egotism or anything else, with truth, integrity and probity. 
All I write is strictly true. 

To the President: 

As old father Time rolls his leaden car along, I learn 
that it behooves a lady left as a landmark of her pos- 
terity, 'mid the worlds' treacherous environments, to turn 
the leaves that are empowered with intelligence and glis- 
tening with embellishment: therefore I am impelled to 
ask, will our noble President give ear to another applicant 
for his bounteous aid to position? The humble writer, is 
an orphan, without kindred — literary by nature. 

Der and respctble sir 

Thrusting in hope I will be so free to ask your Honor 
for a situation. I have receive a good eddication. In 
other respects I am willing to render myself usful. I 
doubt not but that I shall be able to fulfil any duties 
assigned him more intelegent than most. 

President Cleveland 

It is verry dull out here. There is nothing to enliven 
things except the possibility of being impaled alive by 
a live Indian and I dont want to be impaled. I aint 



120 GROVER CLEVELAND 

got any money to pay Rail Road fare and I want to 
get out of this. I thought if you could give me an office, 
I then could get a pass I voted the Republican ticket last 
fall but if you think there will be any chance of your 
being elected another term I will vote for you that is if I 
get an office. 

Dear Sir: 

Would you please appoint a man to some good office 
who has never taken a drink of whiskey in his life and 
who has never used tobacco in any way or been a poli- 
tician or swore 

Dear Sir: 

I have made up my mind to ask you For an Em- 
ployment if you Have anything that is suitable for a man 
that never was in the United States business but have filled 
Lodge Offices Promptly and correct if so as you could 
acomadate me Mr. Cleveland I will also be dutiful to 
my Occupation 

Dear Sir 

I am a young man wich I would like to beter my self. 
The buisnes I am at is Junk buisness, but I would rather 
have the buisness in the govment, either in the Cabnet or 
as watchman 

Sur j would like to have the ofice of secetary j think 
j wold sute you j have a meligant desise all so j have the 
chills so j cant labor fur my liven. Send me the law 
so j will no what a secetery will bea. 

The old-style Democrats, faithful to the spoils ideal, 
euphemistically termed "rotation in office," of course de- 
manded a clean sweep. For a quarter of a century the 



FACING THE POLITICAL BREAD-LINE 121 

pleasant fields of Federal patronage had been closed to 
them, and when now, at last, victory crowned their ban- 
ners, they eagerly demanded the spoils of victory. The 
Mugwumps, on the other hand, fearing treason to the 
pledges and practices which had won their support, 
insisted that there be no sweep at all. 

There was, of course, nothing new in this, for although 
the first forty years of our history were singularly free 
from the spoils system, with the coming of Andrew Jack- 
son, "the man of perpetual fury," all this had been 
changed. Jackson frankly divided the spoils of political 
victory with his fellow Democrats and established a prece- 
dent which successive administrations, Democratic, Whig, 
and Republican alike, had eagerly followed, till slowly, 
but with terrible certainty, the partisan conception had 
grown into a system, generally accepted as an unavoidable 
incident of popular government. 

There had, of course, always been indignant protes- 
tants. Calhoun, in 1835, declared: *'So long as the offices 
were considered as public trusts, to be conferred on the 
honest, the faithful and capable, for the common good, 
and not for the benefit or gain of the incumbent or his 
party, and so long as it was the practice of the Govern- 
ment to continue in office those who faithfully performed 
their duties, its patronage, in point of fact, was limited to 
the mere power of nominating to accidental vacancies or 
to newly created offices, and would, of course, exercise 
but a moderate influence either over the body of the com- 
munity or over the office holders themselves; but when 
this practice was reversed — when offices, instead of being 
considered as public trusts, to be conferred on the de- 
serving, were regarded as the spoils of victory, to be 
bestowed as rewards for partisan service — it is easy to 
see the certain, direct, and inevitable tendency ... to 



122 GROVER CLEVELAND 

convert the entire body of those in office into corrupt and 
supple instruments of power, and to raise up a host of 
hungry, greedy, and subservient partisans, ready for every 
service, however base and corrupt." 

But Calhoun and the earlier opponents of the system 
were opponents with no healing prescription, reformers 
with no organized plan of reform. In politics as in all 
practical affairs mere idealism, however earnest, accom- 
plishes nothing. To be of value, it must carry with it a 
definite program which the ordinary citizen can under- 
stand, and no such program was brought forward until 
1867, when Congressman T. A. Jenckes of Rhode Island, 
recommended to Congress that certain classes of appoint- 
ments hitherto regarded as party spoils be henceforth 
made upon the basis of competitive examination, and 
that the appointees be given a tenure independent of 
political changes. From this suggestion there slowly 
grew up an organized reform movement, and four years 
later Congress authorized the President to appoint a Civil 
Service Commission, and to carry out such rules as it 
might decide upon relative to admission into government 
employ. With this plan established, civil service reform 
became a movement to be reckoned with by party leaders. 

It fell to General Grant, as President, to choose the 
first Civil Service Commission; but the clamor of spoils- 
men was loud, and the General was no stoic. It was not 
very long, therefore, before he suspended the operation 
of the civil service rules, on the ground that Congress, 
under the leadership of James G. Blaine, refused appro- 
priations requisite for conducting the examinations. Thus 
the spoils system again flourished like a green bay tree, 
and again the spoilsmen, in the manner of the slaveholding 
philosophers of old, wove cunning webs of logic to prove 
their system ''born of God." Immediately after this set- 



FACING THE POLITICAL BREAD-LINE 1 23 

back a Civil Service Reform Association was organized 
in New York, with George William Curtis as President. 
Theodore Roosevelt later became an active member of 
this association, which soon developed into the National 
Civil Service Reform League, and set itself the task of 
educating the people upon the necessity of reform. 

Much of the needed education had been already given 
by the unprecedented corruption of Grant's second term, 
and the Democratic party had registered its pretended 
conversion in the national party platform of 1876, which 
declared: "Reform is necessary in the Civil Service. 
Experience proves that efficient, economical conduct of 
the Government business is not possible if its Civil Serv- 
ice be subject to change at every election, be a prize fought 
for at the ballot box, be a brief reward of party zeal, 
instead of posts of honor, assigned for proven compe- 
tency and held for fidelity in the public employ." The 
Convention of 1880 reiterated these views in words of 
violence: "We execrate the course of this Administration 
(Hayes) in making places in the Civil Service a reward 
for political crime, and demand a reform by statute which 
shall make it forever impossible for the defeated candi- 
date to bribe his way to the seat of the usurper by billeting 
villains upon the people." 

The assassination of President Garfield at the hands 
of a disappointed office seeker had further emphasized 
the need of reform, and a solid foundation for its develop- 
ment was finally laid in the famous Pendleton Act of 
January 16, 1883, which empowered the President to 
bring under a merit system such groups of Federal em- 
ployees as he should decide upon, and prohibited political 
assessments upon Federal office holders. This law gave 
hope of speedy regeneration for the public service, and 
Mr. Cleveland as Mayor of Buffalo, when the Pendleton 



124 GROVER CLEVELAND 

Bill was Still merely proposed legislation, had freely com- 
mitted himself to its provisions. As Governor of New 
York, he had been a tireless worker for reform and, amid 
conditions discouraging in the extreme, had finally secured 
a state law requiring the passing of civil service examina- 
tions by applicants for office. 

In view of these actions, the reformers had worked 
for his election to the Presidency, and had tipped the 
balance in his favor; and on December 20, 1884, in order 
to get his views squarely before the country, the National 
Civil Service Reform League had asked him to prepare 
a statement on the subject. Mr. Cleveland's reply is his 
Civil Service confession of faith: 

Albany, Dec. 2^, 1884. 
Hon. George William Curtis, 
President, &c. 
Dear Sir: 

Your communication dated December twentieth, ad- 
dressed to me on behalf of the National Civil Service 
Reform League, has been received. 

That a practical reform in the Civil Service is de- 
manded, is abundantly established by the fact that a 
statute, referred to in your communication, to secure such 
a result, has been passed in Congress with the assent of 
both political parties; and by the further fact that a 
sentiment is generally prevalent among patriotic people, 
calling for the fair and honest enforcement of the law 
which has been thus enacted. I regard myself pledged 
to this, because my conception of true Democratic faith 
and public duty requires that this and all other statutes 
should be in good faith, and without evasion enforced, 
and because in so many utterances made prior to my 
election as President, approved by the party to which 



FACING THE POLITICAL BREAD-LINE 1 25 

I belong and which I have no disposition to disclaim, I 
have in efifect promised the people that this should be 
done. 

I am not unmindful of the fact to which you refer, 
that many of our citizens fear that the recent party change 
in the National Executive may demonstrate that the 
abuses which have grown up in the Civil Service are 
ineradicable. I know that they are deeply rooted, and 
that the spoils system has been supposed to be intimately 
related to success in the maintenance of party organ- 
ization; and I am not sure that all those who profess to 
be the friends of this reform will stand firmly among 
its advocates, when they find it obstructing their way to 
patronage and place. But fully appreciating the trust 
committed to my charge, no such consideration shall 
cause a relaxation on my part of an earnest efifort to en- 
force this law. 

There is a class of Government positions which are 
not within the letter of the Civil Service statute, but 
which are so disconnected with the policy of an adminis- 
tration, that the removal therefrom of present incum- 
bents, in my opinion, should not be made during the 
terms for which they were appointed, solely on partisan 
grounds, and for the purpose of putting in their places 
those who are in political accord with the appointing 
power. But many now holding such positions have for- 
feited all just claim to retention, because they have used 
their places for party purposes, in disregard of their duty 
to the people, and because, instead of being decent pub- 
lic servants, they have proved themselves ofifensive parti- 
sans, and unscrupulous manipulators of local party man- 
agement. The lessons of the past should be unlearned; 
and such officials, as well as their successors, should be 
taught that efficiency, fitness and devotion to public duty 



126 GROVER CLEVELAND 

are the conditions of their continuance in public place, 
and that the quiet and unobtrusive exercise of individual 
rights is the reasonable measure of their party service. 

If I were addressing none but party friends, I should 
deem it entirely proper to remind them that, though the 
coming administration is to be Democratic, a due regard 
for the people's interest does not permit faithful party 
work to be always rewarded by appointment to office; 
and to say to them that while Democrats may expect all 
proper consideration, selections for office not embraced 
within the Civil Service rules will be based upon sufficient 
inquiry as to fitness, instituted by those charged with 
that duty, rather than upon persistent importunity or 
self-solicited recommendations, on behalf of candidates 
for appointment. 

Yours very truly, 

Grover Cleveland. 

This letter promised reform, but it did not promise 
the impossible. Even at this early stage of his Federal 
career, Mr. Cleveland was conscious that his Mugwump 
friends were preparing to insist that he perform miracles 
of healing, and he knew that he could perform no mir- 
acles. To his severely practical mind the business of 
government was to seek increased efficiency, and to that 
end honesty and ability on the part of all officials were 
essential. But to reverse this order, as some of the re- 
formers demanded, and make of government a sort of 
moral crusade, he felt to be unwise, deeply as he resented 
the spoils system in all of its aspects. 

As Francis Lynde Stetson expressed it, ''If, upon the 
accession of President Cleveland, he had found, as he 
did find, every appointive office in the possession of a 
Republican, and if he had found, as he did not find, 



FACING THE POLITICAL BREAD-LINE 127 

every one of these incumbents to be fully competent and 
worthy ... it is inconceivable that he should have been 
expected to reappoint all of such officers upon the expira- 
tion of their terms. He had never given any promise or 
pledge with reference to reappointments, and the prin- 
ciple of civil service reform would have become odious 
to the great mass of the people had it been so practically 
applied as to indicate that it was intended to continue 
exclusion from office of all members of the Democratic 
party." 

Mr. Cleveland planned to be, not a civil service re- 
former with Democratic tendencies, but a President of the 
United States, believing in civil service principles. "Those 
who have complained," he once declared, "have enter- 
tained a very different understanding of what is meant by 
civil service reform from that which the law required me 
to observe and that it was practicable to carry out. The 
President is clothed with many and various responsi- 
bilities. He is expected, primarily, to do all in his power 
to secure good government. That imposes upon him the 
exercise of discretion in making many appointments. It 
is admitted that in filling many places the importance of 
securing persons in sympathy with the political views of 
the dominant party is properly to be considered My 
civil service friends have sometimes seemed to think that 
the Government was to be conducted merely for the pur- 
pose of promoting civil service reform. To me the im- 
portance of general administrative reform has appeared 
to be superior to the incidental matter of civil service 
reform. Good government is the main thing to be aimed 
at. Civil Service Reform is but a means to that end." 

A few days after his inauguration he received a long 
letter from Carl Schurz reminding him, in specific terms, 
of what the reformers expected, and ardently pleading 



128 GROVER CLEVELAND 

for the retention of the Republican Postmaster of New- 
York: *'The reappointment of Mr. Pearson," the letter 
declared, "is . . . regarded as a test of your policy." By 
failing to keep him in his position, you "would disappoint 
the hopes of those of your supporters who have the suc- 
cess of your endeavors to reform abuses and to purify the 
political atmosphere, most earnestly at heart. They cor- 
dially appreciate the noble resistance you have offered to 
the pressure of the spoils politicians, and they would be 
much pained at seeing that record blurred. . . . Owing 
... to the fact that your performances have always gone 
beyond your formal promises, public expectation is now 
higher than it has ever been before. ... If now, in spite 
of your own inclination . . . considerations of a partizan 
character . . . maintain their ascendancy, keeping the 
field open for a future revival of spoils politics, the dis- 
appointment would indeed be great." Doubtless Mr. 
Cleveland was better able than even Mr. Schurz to esti- 
mate the effect of such a policy, as he had cautiously pre- 
sented the problem to the public, through inspired leaders 
in the press, and had watched the reaction, a practice 
quite common with him. 

The effect on the spoilsmen had been immediate and 
violent. One wrote to Lamont: "You are aware of the 
President's civil reform declarations and the amount of 
capital the Republican papers and members of the party 
are making out of it. . . . Not less than twenty of our 
best workers here, come right out and say, if Mr. Cleve- 
land proposes to retain the republicans that are in office, 
throughout his administration, they will go back on the 
party forever. I have no doubt but what this same feel- 
ing exists throughout the state. . . . Should Mr. Pearson 
be reappointed Postmaster in N. Y. City, it would make 



FACING THE POLITICAL BREAD-LINE 1 29 

the greatest commotion, and would cause the loss of not 
less than 10,000 votes in this state." 

A few days after this letter was written, the wily Tam- 
many leader, John Kelly, wrote to Charles P. Britton: 
"I am under the impression that President Cleveland will 
be successful in administering the Government of the 
United States, as he undoubtedly was in discharge of the 
duties of the office of Governor of this State. He is calm, 
dignified, thoughtful, and acts after mature deliberation. 
Besides, he possesses the qualification of listening, and 
saying but very little, although he is very agreeable, social 
and is fond of interchanging views and opinions as any 
person can be holding the dignified and important posi- 
tion of President of the United States. Of course it is a 
great gift to be able to listen and analyze and draw con- 
clusions from what may be said of him by the various 
persons who appeal to him, from time to time, for place 
or favor of some kind." 

Evidently Mr. Kelly felt that Tammany must adopt 
a course different from that pursued in the case of Senator 
Grady, if they were to get their part of the spoils of 
victory. At the end of the letter, clearly designed for 
transfer to the President's own hand, Kelly added this 
sentence, eloquent when taken in connection with the idea 
of Mr. Pearson's reappointment as Postmaster of New 
York: "Besides, his (the President's) ambition is not 
so great as to inaugurate measures that would cause great 
discussion and violent opposition. I wish him every suc- 
cess in life, and hope that he may succeed in discharging 
the duties of the Presidency of this country to the entire 
satisfaction of the people." 

In view of the threat that by persisting in Mr. Pear- 
son's reappointment the President would lose "not less 
than 10,000 votes" in New York, Mr. Kelly's plan was 



130 GROVER CLEVELAND 

adroit; and, as the Tammany leader had doubtless ex- 
pected, Mr. Britton promptly sent Kelly's neat words of 
praise to Lamont, with the following suggestive comment, 
bearing date, March 22, 1885 : ''I note by the papers that 
Mr. Kelly is in Washington to-day . . . and I presume 
he will call at the White House. ... I trust that both 
you yourself and the President will receive him with 
great cordiality, for I assure you from positive knowledge 
that personally he desires it, and he is just the man (and 
I presume in just the state of mind) to appreciate mag- 
nanimity on the part of President Cleveland, and this too 
without a thought as regards patronage for his henchmen. 
For them, individually or collectively, I care nothing; 
but for him, personally, I have great respect. I know 
what he did for us during the campaign against an opposi- 
tion that would have crushed an ordinary man. . . . It 
is of the utmost importance to us, in our future work, 
that the entente cordiale be established at once between the 
President and Mr. Kelly/' 

But neither the consideration of 10,000 votes in New 
York, nor the sweet reasonableness of John Kelly could 
save the New York Post-office for the Democrats. Pear- 
son's name went to the Senate, and to the press went the 
following inspired leader, the manuscript of which is in 
Mr. Cleveland's own hand: 

"A gentleman very near the President and undoubt- 
edly speaking from actual knowledge, reports that the 
reappointment of Mr. Pearson was made after a most 
patient examination of all the facts connected with the 
charges against him and his answer to the same, which 
was yesterday submitted and read by the President. The 
appointment therefore may be considered a complete vin- 
dication of the postmaster. 



FACING THE POLITICAL BREAD-LINE 13 1 

"It is further stated that the reappointment of Mr. 
Pearson will constitute a notable exception to the course 
which the President may be expected to pursue. The 
New York post-office is the largest and most important 
in the country and of interest to all the people and espe- 
cially to the vast business enterprises centered in the 
metropolis. It is to-day a complete illustration of the 
successful application of civil service reform principles 
to an immense governmental establishment. This condi- 
tion has been brought about very largely by the intelli- 
gent effort of Mr. Pearson, and he is thus identified in 
the closest manner with this example of the success of the 
reform. To retain him insures faith and confidence in the 
movement, which would receive a shock from his re- 
moval. His retention was earnestly requested by a large 
number of business men of the city, both Democrats and 
Republicans, and very generally by the Independent Re- 
publicans who did such good service in support of the 
Democratic candidates in the last campaign. 

''This act of the President must not be regarded as 
indicating that in other cases those opposed to the party 
of the President will either be appointed or retained after 
the expiration of their terms of office. 

"In answer to the suggestion that the reappointment 
of Mr. Pearson might cause great dissatisfaction in the 
ranks of his party, the President is represented as saying: 
'The Democratic party is neither hypocritical, unpatriotic 
or ungrateful — they will understand the whole matter and 
be satisfied.' " 

At each new venture along the line of reform, to which 
not he alone but his party, was committed, similar pro- 
tests poured in upon him; but they failed to dominate 
him. Some old political supporter would find his appli- 



132 GROVER CLEVELAND 

cation for a minor Federal appointment denied on the 
ground that it was covered by the civil service law. This 
he could endure; but when he saw an active secretary of 
a Blaine and Logan club, whose name happened to stand 
high on the eligible list, awarded the coveted post by the 
President whom he had helped to elect, his submission 
was turned to rage, which rage was not lessened by the 
Republican taunt, "You got your President, but you can't 
get your Postmaster." Nor was the fact that the taunt 
was true calculated to make disappointed Democrats love 
the grim figure in the White House, who was heroically 
facing the task which they had assigned him. 

The more radical reformers, headed by Schurz, con- 
tinued to urge him to "aim straight at the non-partisan 
service," but, in so urging, asked more than could have 
been reasonably expected. Mr. Cleveland believed that 
the chief object of civil service reform is not to prevent 
removals from office, but to supply a body of competent 
persons, tested by examinations, from whom appoint- 
ments can be made. He believed that if the incompetent 
should be weeded out there would be ample opportunity 
to gratify the natural desires of the Democrats for recog- 
nition, without dropping any, of whatever party, who had 
shown special fitness for their places. This was a per- 
fectly fair standard, and one which could be adhered to 
without complete disregard of party obligations. Chosen 
by a party which had known, not seven lean years, but 
more than two lean decades, Mr. Cleveland knew that a 
purely non-partisan plan for the distribution of patron- 
age would mean suicide in office and a fruitless admin- 
istration. 

At times he made serious mistakes, or was led into 
error, but in the light of new evidence he did not hesitate 
to reverse his decisions, offend whom it might. Not long 



FACING THE POLITICAL BREAD-LINE 133 

after he had ordered the appointment of James Blackburn 
of Kentucky as Collector of Internal Revenue, his atten- 
tion was called to a letter written by Mr. Blackburn dur- 
ing the war: 

Abingdon, Va., October 2, 1861. 
My dear Wife, 

I have left you and our children in the land of the 
despot, but God grant that I may soon be able to make 
the Union men of Kentucky feel the edge of my knife. 
From this day I hold every Union traitor as my enemy, 
and from him I scorn to receive quarter, and to whom I 
will never grant my soul in death; for they are cowards 
and villains enough. Brother Henry and I arrived here 
without hindrance. I have had chills all the way, but I 
hope to live to kill forty Yankees for every chill that I 
ever had. I learn that Hardee is still in the Arkansas 
lines, inactive, and if this proves true I will tender my 
resignation and go immediately to Kentucky. I hope 
that I will do my duty as a rebel and a free man. Since 
I know the Union men of Kentucky, I intend to begin the 
work of murder in earnest, and if I ever spare one of 
them may hell be my portion. I want to see Union blood 
now deep enough for my horse to swim in. 

Your husband, 

James Blackburn. 

The President sent for some of Blackburn's friends 
to inquire if the letter as printed was authentic, and found 
that it was admitted to be genuine. He then consulted 
with the members of the Cabinet, and the order was 
given to cancel the appointment. Mr. Blackburn's friends 
and political sponsors pleaded, clamored, threatened, but 
in vain. 



134 GROVER CLEVELAND 

That he was sincere will hardly be doubted by one 
who has read the following letter, written not for public 
perusal, not for campaign use, but for the eyes of a trusted 
and beloved friend, Wilson S. Bissell : 

Executive Mansion, Washington. 

June 2^, l88^. 
Dear Bissell: 

It is nearly 12. o'c. Lamont just brought in your 
letter (we have a mail at 1 1 o'c now) and after reading 
it, I have put aside my work to reply. 

Somehow this letter has impressed me with the sus- 
picion that in one quarter at least there is an idea that I 
owe something to friends for political aid, which I am 
not ready enough to acknowledge. Perhaps this is true. 
At all events I tell you now, with the utmost sincerity, 
that I cannot rid myself of the idea that I owe so much 
to the country, that all other obligations shrink almost to 
nothingness before it — though I must confess that some- 
times I am much comforted by the reflection that I may 
serve the country well and still serve my party. My 
ability to do either of these things depends of course upon 
the approval of the people. The people I have to deal 
with — that is the people of the country — are not perhaps 
just what I wish they were, and they perhaps have ideas 
which are not useful or correct, but their ideas to a very 
great extent must be met or my eflforts to do good must 
miscarry. 

Your letter indicates that you appreciate partly the 
extent and perplexity, as well as the delicacy of my work. 
For three months I have stood here and battled with those 
of my party who deem party success but a means to per- 
sonal advantage. They have been refused and disap- 
pointed ; and you are able to-day to write as you do, that 



FACING THE POLITICAL BREAD-LINE 1 35 

my administration is strong and popular, because those 
thus refused and disappointed cannot say that I have re- 
fused them in order to make place for personal friends, 
and have bestov^ed patronage in payment of personal 
political debts. 

I have often thought how solemn a thing it is to live 
and feel the pressure of the duties which life — the mere 
existence in a social state — imposes; but I have never 
appreciated the thought in its full solemnity till now. It 
seems to me that I am as much consecrated to a service, 
as the religionist who secludes himself from all that is 
joyous in life and devotes himself to a sacred mission. 

I think you know how much of all that has had any- 
thing of comfort in my life has grown out of my love for 
my friends and the hope that I had earned some real un- 
selfish attachments. And if, in carrying my present bur- 
den, I must feel that friends are calling me selfish and 
doubting my attachment to them and criticising the fact 
that in the administration of my great trust I am not aid- 
ing them, I shall certainly be unhappy, but shall neverthe- 
less struggle on. The end will come; and if on that day 
I can retire with a sure consciousness that I have done my 
whole duty according to my lights and my ability, there 
will be some corner for me where I can rest. 

You must not think that I am always blue and always 
unhappy. In the midst of all I have to do, daily and 
hourly come the assurances from the people in all parts, 
that they are satisfied and pleased. If I could only, by 
giving up all I have or expect, liquidate the debts and 
obligations to my friends, a terrible load would fall from 
my shoulders. You say they were very few and could be 
counted upon the fingers of one hand. I am sure five 
thousand have claimed that they were spent in my behalf 
to an extent that can never be compensated. What a nice 



136 GROVER CLEVELAND 

thing it would be if my close friends could see a compen- 
sation in my successful administration. 

Of one thing you may be certain. I shall bear with 
me to my dying day a heart full of gratitude for all that 
you have done for me. 

Yours faithfully, 

Grover Cleveland. 

He was painfully conscientious in searching for the 
best candidates for office and painfully alert to avoid 
misrepresentations. "I have fallen into the habit lately 
of wrestling very hard with this cursed office-filling in 
my dreams," he wrote to Charles W. Goodyear, on June 
i6th. And, a month later, he describes himself as "pitch- 
ing about half asleep and half awake, trying to make 
postmasters." But despite his caution, he was occasionally 
misled, at times deliberately, by men who wished either 
to accommodate friends, or to shift the burden of refusal 
to the President's shoulders. To one such, who had ven- 
tured to express surprise at the appointment of a candi- 
date whom he had himself thus recommended, the Presi- 
dent wrote, in unmeasured condemnation : 

Executive Mansion, Washington, 

August I, 188^. 
Dear Sir: 

I have read your letter of the 24th ult. with amaze- 
ment and indignation. There is but one mitigation to 
the perfidy which your letter discloses, and that is found 
in the fact that you confess your share in it. I don't know 
whether you are a Democrat or not; but if you are the 
crime which you confess is the more unpardonable. The 
idea that this administration, pledged to give the people 
better government and better officers, and engaged in a 



FACING THE POLITICAL BREAD-LINE 1 37 

hand-to-hand fight with the bad elements of both parties, 
should be betrayed by those who ought to be worthy of 
implicit trust, is atrocious; and such treason to the people 
and to the party ought to be punished by imprisonment. 
Your confession comes too late to be of immediate use 
to the public service, and I can only say that while this 
is not the first time I have been deceived and misled by 
lying and treacherous representatives, you are the first 
one that has so frankly owned his grievous fault. If any 
comfort is to be extracted from this assurance you are 
welcome to it. 

Yours truly, 

Grover Cleveland. 

The pressure for ofiice coming from his Buffalo 
friends was hardest to bear, and their complaints caused 
him keen distress, but they did not cause him to swerve 
from the rigid standards of public duty which he had 
set himself. To Charles W. Goodyear he thus unbur- 
dened his heart: 

Executive Mansion, Washington. 

Aug. 6, 1885. 
Dear Charley: 

I return you Bissell's letter, and am exceedingly sur- 
prised at it, as also by the statement in your letter, that 

you have wanted to tell me ''of , , , , 

and others who were your (my) warm hearted friends," 
etc., etc. I think I understand it; and the truth that I 
have been attempting to crowd back, is forced upon me. 
What have these friends to complain of? 

Has made up his mind that he is justified in 

withdrawing his friendship, because he was not appointed 
as a member of the Cabinet or Consul to London? These 
two things he will see some day were impossible; and 



138 GROVER CLEVELAND 

from one he withdrew himself. I would not demean 
myself to speak of the pleasure it has given me to do every 
other thing which I thought he wanted. 

Is offended because I forgot to insist in the 

Cabinet (and I would not have done it if I had remem- 
bered it) that the banking business should be continued 
in the hands of the most pronounced Republicans, who 
were fleecing the Government right and left? 

Has ceased to be a friend because I did not 

appoint him to a place in the diplomatic service, and thus 
offend my party and give the lie to my declaration that 
the administration was to be Democratic, and weaken 
myself by giving public places to reward personal 
friends? 

Has made up his mind that our long friendship 

should be broken and interrupted, because I did not in- 
sist upon his taking the Paris Consulship, or because I 
am now hesitating about an attempt to find something of 
personal and professional interest to him, which I am con- 
vinced by my present lights ought not to be done? 

I can think of nothing else which should interfere 
with the relations I have been so delighted to maintain 
with these gentlemen. Of all the 60,000,000 people in 
the country, high or low, my Buffalo friends when here 
have been treated with the utmost consideration and hos- 
pitality, so far as I have been able to do it, and so far as 
my knowledge of proper and handsome treatment went. 
It may be that public business has prevented my devoting 
as much time to them as I desired, but I did the best I 
could. 

I have been here five months now, and have met many 
people who had no friendship for me, and were intent 
on selfishly grabbing all they could get, without any re- 
gard to the country, the party or to me; but I have man- 



FACING THE POLITICAL BREAD-LINE 1 39 

aged to get along with them apparently as well as with 
my Buffalo friends. And now I am done. I feel sick 
at heart. I don't want to let these friends go; but I am 
tired of this beating about the bush and all this talk about 
"second-handed invitation" and "holes in a plank" and 
that sort of thing. If people lie in wait for me to discover 
things that may be construed into slights and offenses, 
they will find plenty of them. I am not much on my 
guard with friends. 

I have no complaints to make. Of course I thought 
it a little strange that with the hundreds of invitations, 
to visit hundreds of places during my vacation, my friends 
in Buffalo did not seem to care to see me; but I am not 
going to say that I can get along without Buffalo or 
Buffalo friends. I care much — very much — for the latter. 
But by God! I have something on hand here that cannot 
be interfered with; and if my Buffalo friends or any other 
friends cannot appreciate that, I can't help it. 

I am getting in that condition where any demonstra- 
tion of kindness touches me deeply; and therefore I thank 
you for your kind words and offer to attend to any matter 
for me in Buffalo. 

I hope to receive the tin box very soon; and after 
that I will try to be real good and make as little trouble 
as possible. 

For God's sake, Charley, don't think that I am [in] 
any way out of sorts with you. 

Yours faithfully, 

Grover Cleveland. 

Such a letter, certainly unjust in many of its implica- 
tions, and that to men whom he really loved, showed that 
nerves were giving the danger signal, and he eagerly wel- 
comed the long-looked-f or vacation in the woods, with the 



I40 GROVER CLEVELAND 

leaping trout, the rippling streams, and the soothing com- 
radeship of Dr. Bryant, his devoted physician and still 
more devoted friend. 

Thanks to Lamont's scrapbook, the follow^ing Presi- 
dential movie of a Cleveland fishing trip is preserved. 
It was written by a Chicago Tribune reporter on August 
21, 1885, and shows Mr, Cleveland at play: 

" 'I think,' said the Doctor, as he and the President 
emerged from the tent after luncheon, 'that we can't do 
better than try the pools up the creek for pickerel. I saw 
a big fellow lurking under the shadow of the bank yes- 
terday, and I'm confident we shall have sport. It's a good 
afternoon for fishing. What do you say to it, Mr. 
Cleveland?' 

" 'I don't believe we can do better, Doc,' was the 
reply. 

"The two shouldered their poles and started ofif up 
the creek. Arriving at what seemed a likely spot for 
pickerel, the question of what bait was best came up, 
and the Doctor advocated live frogs. 'I know you object 
to killing an old bullfrog,' he explained, 'because of your 
sentiments expressed yesterday, but the kind we shall use 
for bait will be the little brown hoppers. If there's any- 
thing a pickerel just delights in, it's a small, fresh frog.' 

"Two active little frogs were easily caught, the hooks 
were baited by passing the steel through the skin on the 
frogs' back, leaving them alive and with power of move- 
ment, and then, seating themselves on the bank a few yards 
apart, the President and the Doctor began fishing. Little 
was said, and each, lighting a cigar, smoked away placidly 
awaiting a bite. It was not long before there was a rush 
in the water, a swirl, a struggle, and a little later the 
Doctor had landed a fine pickerel on the sward behind 
him. The President looked enviously at the dappled 



FACING THE POLITICAL BREAD-LINE 141 

sides of the fish and watched his own line with increased 
interest, but it did not stir. Again and again was the 
Doctor successful, but his companion had no luck. The 
hours passed, but the President caught no fish. He be- 
came listless. 

" 'I don't see how it is. Doc,' said he finally, 'that you 
catch so many fish while I don't get even a nibble. I 
used to be a successful fisherman when I was a boy. Ah, 
those were good times!' and he sighed deeply. 'Dinner 
always had a relish in those days, and there was enjoy- 
ment in everything. I can see it now — the hard, white 
road, winding between green fields, and the wooden 
bridge over the creek in the hollow. There were always 
fish in the deep water under the bridge and in the pools 
above and below it. We fished with pin hooks, we boys, 
and we brought out every fish with a yank, to prevent his 
falling off the hook, but we generally had good luck. I 
know I always went home with more chubs and shiners 
than they liked to cook. 

" 'It was a triumphal march home with my catch, up 
the long clay road and into the front yard — why don't 
they have such front yards nowadays?' he soliloquized. 
'There is a fashion in country front yards, imported from 
New England, I think. There was a plank or gravel 
walk from the gate up to the front door, and on either 
side of the walk were the flowers — not such flowers as are 
raised now, but old-fashioned flowers. There were lark- 
spurs and a bed of China asters, and then one of the old 
style of pinks, next to a great bunch of phlox, and then 
dahlias. Up against the house would be hollyhocks, and 
between them, at their feet, "bouncing Betty's" and "old 
hen and chickens." Oh, I know those old-fashioned gar- 
dens! But' — and here he suddenly recollected himself — 
'I haven't had a bite yet, and you've caught a lot more 



142 GROVER CLEVELAND 

pickerel ! I've got the same kind of frog on my hook that 
you have. Why don't they bite at him? By the way, 
there's a good frog for bait on that stump across the 
creek. See it, Doc?' 

" 'That's so,' said the Doctor; 'I believe if you had that 
fellow on your hook the pickerel would bite.' 

" 'I'm going to try to get him,' said the President, and 
he began to reel in his line preparatory to crossing the 
creek at a shallow place further up. The line became 
gradually taut, though the President did not at first notice 
it, his eyes being fastened on the frog, until that little 
animal began to scramble and cling to his perch for 
dear life, as if something were pulling at him. The 
President, in astonishment, stopped reeling, and by a 
coincidence the frog appeared at peace again. The Presi- 
dent looked at his pole, then along his line, then at the 
Doctor, then back to the frog. A light dawned upon him. 
He uttered a single word : 

" 'Jehoshaphatl' 

" What is it?' exclaimed the Doctor. 'What's the 
matter?' 

" 'Don't speak to me,' replied the President. 'I'll be 
hanged if that isn't my frog on the stump! He's swum 
across and climbed the stump, hook and all, and here 
I've been sitting waiting on him all the afternoon — wait- 
ing for pickerel to bite! Great Scott!' 

"The sympathizing Doctor crossed the creek and pre- 
pared to toss the frog and hook back into the water, but 
the President said he guessed he wouldn't fish any more 
that day. The frog was released with all care, and sub- 
sequently tossed into a puddle. 

" 'I don't blame him much,' said the President. 'I 
ought to have attended to business. I've been day- 
dreaming.' " 



FACING THE POLITICAL BREAD-LINE 143 

Perhaps daydreams were not unnatural in a President 
who had just escaped for a time the eager political bread- 
line, and knew that he must soon return, not to it alone, 
but to the as yet untried business of dealing with Congress. 

It was his physical salvation, during the trying years 
of conflict that followed, to be able, when the strain grew 
unbearable, to take down his beloved rod, or sling over 
his shoulder his shotgun — modestly named "Death and 
Destruction" — and seek the restoring balm of God's 
glorious solitude. They might slander him, as they did; 
they might trick him with cunning, deceive him with 
lies, torture him with reproaches of ingratitude and of 
unfriendliness to friends; but no one could rob him of 
his duck marshes, or prevent the shy trout and agile blue- 
fish from turning his mind away, for a time, from all 
worries. God made him a sportsman, and the instinct 
served him as the protective coloring serves the wild 
things in the great, free world of outdoors. 

Early in September he returned to the White House, 
conscious that the clamor for office had not diminished 
nor would for many weary months. His heart had been 
lightened, however, by the discovery, made during the 
summer, that he was mistaken in his judgment concerning 
his Buffalo intimates of whose unfriendliness he had so 
bitterly complained to Goodyear. As soon as he reached 
his desk he wrote acknowledging that misjudgment and, 
incidentally, recorded his general distaste for the life of 
a President: 

"I feel that I am in the treadmill again and look for- 
ward to the time when another respite shall be due to 
me and all that must take place between now and then 
with the gravest concern. If it were not for the full 
faith I have in the Higher Power that aids honest, faith- 
ful endeavor, I should be frightened by all I see before 



144 GROVER CLEVELAND 

me. But I have not a particle of real fear, though I 
confess to anxiety, because so much depends upon me. 
It's a curious state of mind to be in, when all the value 
of life is measured by its relation to other persons and 
other things, and when the natural desire to live for the 
sake of living and enjoying life is nearly gone." 

In his absence, King Leopold of Belgium had sent 
him a formal announcement that the mandatory of the 
Congo, which the Powers had recently conferred upon 
Belgium, "will hereafter form the independent state of 
the Congo," and that he had "taken . . . the title of Sov- 
ereign" of that new state. Mr. Cleveland's reply was a 
formal recognition of conditions in the creation of which 
he had had no part, and for the cruel and unforeseen out- 
come of which, "the horrors of the Congo," he can be 
held in no degree responsible. 

Esteemed and Great Friend : 

I have had much pleasure in receiving your Majesty's 
letter of the ist of August last, announcing that the pos- 
sessions of the International Association of the Congo 
will hereafter form the Independent State of the Congo, 
and that your Majesty, under the authorization of the 
Belgian Legislative Chambers, and in accord with the 
association, has assumed the title of Sovereign of the 
Independent State of the Congo. I observe your 
Majesty's further statement that the convention between 
Belgium and the new State is exclusively personal. This 
government at the outset testified its lively interest in the 
well being and future progress of the vast region now 
committed to your Majesty's wise care, being the first 
among the Powers to recognize the flag of the Interna- 
tional Association of the Congo as that of a friendly State; 



FACING THE POLITICAL BREAD-LINE 145 

and now that the progress of events has brought with it 
the general recognition of the jurisdiction of the associa- 
tion and opened the way for its incorporation as an inde- 
pendent and sovereign State, I have great satisfaction in 
congratulating your Majesty on being called to the Chief 
Magistracy of the newly formed government. 

The Government and people of the United States, 
whose only concern lies in watching with benevolent 
expectation the growth of prosperity and peace among the 
communities to whom they are joined by ties of friend- 
ship, cannot doubt that under your Majesty's good gov- 
ernment the peoples of the Congo region will advance in 
the paths of civilization and deserve the good-will of all 
those States and people who may be brought into contact 
with them. 

I am, my esteemed and great friend, your faithful 
friend. 

Grover Cleveland. 

Done at Washington, this nth day of September, 
1885, by the President. 

T. F. Bayard, 
Secretary of State. 

Once more in harness, the President again faced the 
political bread-line. The Pendleton Law already cov- 
ered some thirteen thousand five hundred offices, but 
there remained subject to Mr. Cleveland's appointment 
forty-nine thousand fourth-class postmasters, and five 
thousand miscellaneous posts mostly packed with Repub- 
licans. For each there were at hand many expectant 
Democratic officials, backed by not less expectant Demo- 
cratic politicians hunting votes. These were they who 



146 GROVER CLEVELAND 

had ranted on the stump, organized gigantic torchlight 
parades, "gathered the coin," or fed the columns of a 
party press during the late campaign. They could see 
no excuse for a President who would not fill vacancies 
with the faithful, or make vacancies where none existed, 
and shrieked traitor at each non-partisan appointment, 
however excellent. 

On the other hand. Republicans who had fed the fires 
of personal slander, had cheered themselves hoarse at the 
mention of the name of James G. Blaine, and had ran- 
sacked the political garbage cans for new filth to hurl at 
the then Governor of New York, loudly cried hypocrite 
at each removal, however necessary, while despite his 
honest and persistent fight for reform against an increas- 
ingly powerful faction in his own party, many even 
among civil service reformers looked upon the President 
as a betrayer of their confidence, a wolf in sheep's cloth- 
ing, a champion spoilsman camouflaged. This was his 
penalty for leadership of a party not yet regenerate. Over 
and over again his friends broke party pledges in the 
belief that the President would never know. They made 
partisan removals in such numbers as to justify the com- 
plaint that the Democrats were no more attached to 
reform than the Republicans had been, and the reckless 
manner in which Congressmen, Senators, and others high 
in ofiice lent their names to undesirable candidates caused 
the President to wonder whether any recommendation 
could be considered of value. "The Vice-President, and 
at least half the Democratic Senators, and nearly all the 
Democrats of the House," commented the Commercial 
Gazette, "[have] banded themselves together to break 
down the President and his Cabinet, and force him to do 
their bidding. . . . The first surprise of the President 



FACING THE POLITICAL BREAD-LINE 147 

was as nothing compared with his amazement over the 
later features of the office-seekers' raid." 

Yet the more judicial reformers knew that he was 
reforming, slowly, cautiously, practically, but really; 
working as one who knows the limitations of executive 
power must work if permanent results are to be attained. 
"Since the spoils system was first generally introduced 
into our national administration," wrote George William 
Curtis, after watching the new President for only five 
months, "no President has given such conclusive evidence 
both of his reform convictions and of his courage in en- 
forcing his convictions as Grover Cleveland." And, dur- 
ing the same summer, Gladstone remarked to Theodore L. 
Cuyler, who was visiting England : "Cleveland is the 
noblest man that has filled the Presidential chair since 
Lincoln." 

The President's frank and uncompromising methods 
made for him relentless enemies who, in various sections 
of the country, poured vitriol into a personally conducted 
press, causing it to produce many stories more interesting 
than authentic. In turn, he generalized too freely, and 
his sweeping denunciations appealed to the esprit de 
corps of editors, disposed, and not unjustly, to resent 
blanket indictments of their order. They busied them- 
selves making and printing collections, built on the line 
of modern three-foot shelf libraries, to show the public 
"how the people's President slanders the people's press." 
The newspaper clippers, who in those days were em- 
ployed to make presidential scrapbooks, filled volumes 
with their gleanings, letters many of which the President 
had written for private, not public eyes. 

One example, which the newspapers spread broadcast 
over the country, will suffice to show why Grover Cleve- 
land was not beloved of the press: 



148 GROVER CLEVELAND 

To Joseph Keppler, Esq., 
New York City. 
My dear Sir: 

I just received your letter, with the newspaper clip- 
ping which caused you so much annoyance. 

I don't think there ever was a time when newspaper 
lying was so general and so mean as at present, and there 
never was a country under the sun where it flourished as 
it does in this. The falsehoods daily spread before the 
people in our newspapers, while they are proofs of the 
mental ingenuity of those engaged in newspaper work, 
are insults to the American love for decency and fair play 
of which we boast. 

I hasten to reply to your letter that the allegation con- 
tained in the slip you send me, to the efifect that you ever 
asked a personal favor of me, is entirely and utterly false. 
You have never in the slightest manner indicated a wish, 
claim, or preference touching any appointment to office, 
or any official act of mine, and the only occasion I remem- 
ber when I ever had any conversation with you was dur- 
ing a short and very friendly call you made upon me in 
Albany, during my term as Governor. If I ever received 
a letter or message from you on any subject I have for- 
gotten it — a thing I should not be apt to do. 

While I am sorry that any friendliness you may have 
felt or exhibited for me has been the cause of embarrass- 
ment to you, I cannot refrain from saying that if you ever 
become a subject of newspaper lying, and attempt to run 
down and expose all such lies, you will be a busy man, if 
you attempt nothing else. 

Hoping that the denial which I send is sufficiently 
explicit, I am 

Yoars very sincerely, 

Grover Cleveland. 



FACING THE POLITICAL BREAD-LINE 149 

Under such conditions it is not remarkable that the 
public was for a time deceived concerning the real nature 
of the man whom they had chosen President, and that the 
slanders of the campaign of 1884 were kept alive in the 
minds of the people. His critics, for the most part, either 
failed to understand what he had promised, were mis- 
informed as to his actions, or intentionally misrepresented 
him. By refusing to go to one extreme with the re- 
formers, he lost their confidence; by refusing to go to the 
other extreme with the spoilsmen, he lost theirs. But he 
yielded to neither, considering that his duty lay between, 
in which position he became the target of both. 

The months, as they passed, brought no cessation of the 
conflict. ''All this time, like a nightmare," he wrote to 
Charles Goodyear, "this dreadful, damnable office-seek- 
ing hangs over me and surrounds me," and to Bissell he 
used even stronger language: "The d — d everlasting 
clatter for offices continues . . . and makes me feel like 
resigning and hell is to pay generally." 

The Bacon-Sterling case, which had just been disposed 
of and which had irritated the President for the past 
three months, was responsible for a considerable part 
of the exasperation which this letter expresses. It had 
begun late in the summer when Hedden, Collector of the 
Port of New York, removed Captain Bacon, chief 
weigher of the Brooklyn customs district, with a service 
of sixteen years behind him, and put George H. Sterling, 
a local political leader, in his place, without requiring 
of him a civil service examination, the Commission hav- 
ing ruled that one was not necessary for appointment to 
the post of weigher. Sterling was believed by the re- 
formers to be the man of "Boss" McLaughlin of Brook- 
lyn, who in turn rejoiced in the title "political henchman 
of David B. Hill." The office was politically important 



1^0 GROVER CLEVELAND 

as it controlled over three hundred laborers with votes, 
and a mayoralty campaign was on in Brooklyn. 

"The change," commented the New York Times of 
September i6, 1885, "has no apparent motive except the 
control of laborers' votes by a Democratic weigher." 
The Evening Post, the World, the independent papers 
of Boston, and many others, also loudly condemned the 
act, and civil service reformers. Democratic, Republican, 
and Mugwump alike, without stopping to investigate, 
raised an indignant protest. Henry Ward Beecher wrote 
to the President: "The ousting of Capt. Bacon and the 
appointment of Sterling in his place, is most unfortunate 
for all who desire to work with you, in a purification of 
government. A faithful soldier, and a singularly honest 
and efficient man displaced by a pot-house politician, 
himself a liquor dealer! — It disgusts all temperance men, 
it wounds patriotic citizens — and is a blow in the face 
to all who abandoned the Republican party in order to 
establish a purer administration — Of course, you cannot 
know personally every subordinate candidate or ap- 
pointee. But, in a case so flagrant as this, you cannot es- 
cape knowledge and responsibility, and I earnestly hope, 
for the cause which we both serve, that it will seem to you 
a duty to interfere in this matter before it is too late." 

On September i6th the Executive Committee of the 
Civil Service Reform Association voted to send a repre- 
sentative to point out to the President wherein the civil 
service laws had been violated by Hedden, and invited 
Edward M. Shepard, then President of the Young Men's 
Democratic Club of Brooklyn, to act in this capacity; 
but Mr. Shepard declined, preferring to send a personal 
appeal to the President, in which he wrote: 

"I do not know Mr. Sterling personally; but he is 
certainly widely supposed to be a corrupt man. He is 



FACING THE POLITICAL BREAD-LINE 151 

not now a weigher — and his experience as a weigher, if he 
ever had it, was very long ago and was not of an impor- 
tance to fit him to be the executive head of three hundred 
employees. He is a liquor-dealer, whose associates are 
reputed to be of a very rough character. To place to a 
considerable degree, in his charge, the enormous com- 
mercial interests of the warehousemen along the Brook- 
lyn water front and their customers would be an official 
act, if adopted by the Administration, which would be 
a lasting and most serious burden upon its friends." 

There followed many pages in justification of his com- 
plaint, and the letter ended with the declaration that the 
President should "without delay and in the most emphatic 
way revoke Mr. Sterling's appointment, and restore Cap- 
tain Bacon, unless there be proven charges against him." 

Collector Hedden, on the other hand, stoutly defended 
the change, on the ground that neither the letter nor the 
spirit of the civil service regulations had been violated, 
that Bacon had been a highly unsatisfactory official, lend- 
ing his office to political exploitation, and that Sterling 
was "a man of integrity, and particularly skilled in the 
work of the office to which he was appointed." 

Under such conditions, it was necessary for the Presi- 
dent to discover the truth for himself before expressing 
an opinion. He therefore requested his brother-in-law, 
E. B. Yeomans, to visit the district in question and to re- 
port upon the facts, while in order to protect the service 
he directed that Sterling's appointment be revoked until 
a final decision could be properly rendered. Yeomans's 
report, which covered seventeen sheets of foolscap, was 
distinctly favorable to Sterling, and tended to justify his 
appointment to succeed Bacon, although it declared that 
Sterling kept a liquor saloon. 

The President next wrote the following letter: 



1^2 GROVER CLEVELAND 

Executive Mansion, Washington. 

Sept. zg, l88s. 
Edward M. Shepard, Esq., 
Dear Sir: 

I was glad you wrote to me regarding the Bacon-Ster- 
ling affair. Since the receipt of your letter I have caused 
the suspension of Sterling pending an examination. I 
cannot afford to be unjust even towards a man so promptly 
and vigorously assailed. In such cases as this we are all 
apt to go a little fast. I want you now in cooler moments 
to help me investigate this affair — and especially the 
character of Sterling. The rest I can attend to. 

I have received letters from very excellent sources 
representing that Sterling is and always has been a good 
son to a widowed mother and exemplary as a husband 
and father, and much more very much to his credit. 

I wish you would take a little pains to enquire con- 
cerning him and his associates and all that will aid me 
in making up a judgment, and write to me the result of 
your investigation. 

Mr. James How of the Union White Lead Manu- 
facturing Company knows him well, and he had the en- 
dorsement of Arbuckle Bros, and other prominent busi- 
ness houses before he was appointed. Vicar General 
Keegan knows him well, and I think can say something 
of his life and habits. 

The people I have mentioned are no doubt ready to 
speak well of him. It is in your power to give me the 
names and opinions of others perhaps who speak ill of 
him. 

You can readily see that I am not in position to act 
now on general denunciation. 

Yours sincerely, 

Grover Cleveland. 



FACING THE POLITICAL BREAD-LINE 153 

Mr. Shepard's report is a frank acknowledgment of 
the fact that his first impressions had been wrong. On 
September 19th he had insisted that Sterling was mani- 
festly unfit, and that Captain Bacon should be instantly 
restored to office, unless facts "justifying his removal" 
are known to the Administration. By October 12th care- 
ful investigation had convinced him that Sterling was 
"a man of considerable native vigor and brightness, hav- 
ing some practical knowledge of weighing and a fair 
knowledge of figures, and perfectly competent to direct 
gangs of men," and that "although personally an upright 
and intelligent man, Captain Bacon has had no great 
success, either in vigorously directing his subordinates, 
or in preventing in years past occasion for grave objec- 
tions to their partisan employment in the politics of 
Brooklyn." 

But President Cleveland had not waited for Mr. 
Shepard's report. Although upon the basis of the evi- 
dence already before him it was clear that nothing had 
been proved against Sterling, sufficient to warrant his 
rejection upon personal grounds, the arguments of the 
civil service reformers had convinced him that his re- 
tention would injure the reform movement. He there- 
fore consulted with the Commissioners, and a re-examina- 
tion of their decision in regard to the status of weighers 
under the law resulted in an agreement that their prior 
decision was wrong and that weighers should be examined 
and passed before appointment. The examination was 
held, and Sterling was twenty-second out of forty-five 
candidates. The first man on the list, John W. O'Brien, 
was therefore made weigher. The Democrats of the 
Second Ward passed resolutions denouncing this "mean 
and cowardly treatment of Mr. Sterling" and sent them 
to "the Mugwump President, the vacillating Secretary 



154 GROVER CLEVELAND 

of the Treasury, and the weak-minded Collector, Red- 
den." And so the affair passed into history. 

In view of the bitterness which the Bacon-Sterling 
case had engendered, and of the approaching New York 
Democratic Convention which was to nominate a Gover- 
nor, cautious politicians felt that it would be wise for 
the President to ''soft-pedal" his reform views. Clearly, 
his party in New York was not with him upon this sub- 
ject. Powerful organizations of New York Democrats 
had frankly declared bitter hostility to the principles 
and practices of civil service reform, and influential 
Democratic newspapers had urged that the convention 
either condemn the movement openly, or pass it over 
with a silence which would be interpreted as dissent. 
Most of the New York Democratic leaders who had made 
any comment had either condemned the law, which they 
contemptuously called the "Snivil Service Reform Act," 
or had construed it in a manner calculated to make it no 
longer the foe of the spoils system. The gifted Tammany 
orator, Bourke Cockran, had painted for the benefit of 
the faithful a heartbreaking picture of the inevitable 
wreck of democratic equality, should America ever allow 
to prevail that "pernicious system . . . that erects and 
creates irresponsible boards or commissions to control or 
limit the powers conferred by the Constitution on the 
elect of the people." And the faithful had shouted a glad 
Amen! They were weary of Cleveland and reform. 

At this point Mr. Cleveland chose to imitate his be- 
loved friend, the salmon, which rejoices to swim against 
the fiercest current. On July 27, 1885, Commissioner 
Eaton had offered his resignation, and the President, in 
the face of predictions of calamity, deliberately selected 
the critical moment in the meeting of the New York 
Democratic Convention to make public his own letter, 



FACING THE POLITICAL BREAD-LINE 1 55 

dated September 11, 1885, accepting the resignation, and 
reaffirming his determination to press forward the civil 
service reform movement. 

Coming as it did between the nominations of the two 
parties in New York, and accompanied as it was by the 
suspension of Sterling, this letter attracted more attention 
than either of the platforms adopted at Saratoga, but it 
did not bring victory to the reform element in New York. 
David B. Hill, backed by Tammany Hall, the old canal 
ring, and other highly un-reform-like elements, was mas- 
ter of the convention. His hungry eyes were on the 
White House, and the hungry eyes of the disappointed 
spoilsmen of New York were on David B. Hill, who had 
shown that he understood how to give them "their meat 
in due season." His nomination caused many of the 
Independents who had supported Cleveland in 1884 to 
gravitate toward the Republican candidate, Davenport, 
who, as Carl Schurz expressed it, "represents the best 
tendencies, not only in his own, but in both political 
parties, and Mr. Hill the worst." 

These defections, together with the desertion of many 
Democrats, due in part to Hill's nomination and in part 
to the belief that President Cleveland was opposed to 
his election, greatly disturbed the New York Democratic 
leaders. On October 5, 1885, Alton B. Parker, Chairman 
of the Executive Committee, therefore, made an appeal to 
the President, declaring that the only thing necessary to 
insure the election of Hill and his fellow New York 
Democrats was a word from Mr. Cleveland in their favor. 
This he promptly received; for, as a party man, Mr. 
Cleveland felt that he must support the party ticket; and 
he contributed a thousand dollars toward the campaign 
fund, although conscious that many of Hill's friends 
were daily denouncing and misrepresenting him. 



156 GROVER CLEVELAND 

"If I thought," he wrote to Parker when making his 
contribution, "that you needed any advice I should 
strongly urge upon you to enjoin upon any person pretend- 
ing to desire the success of the ticket, and at the same time 
howling about the Administration and claiming that it 
should 'speak out' that campaigns are successfully fought 
by pushing the merits of candidates and principles, and 
not by a foolish attempt to discredit an Administration 
which is doing all that is possible to assist the canvass. 
I think the greatest enemy to the success of your ticket 
to-day is the man and the paper which is constantly 
yelling to the Administration to come to its rescue-. And 
if you know of anybody that has any influence with the 
N. Y. World you should, I think, ask that the manifesta- 
tion of its unfriendliness to the Administration be re- 
strained till after election. As for the professed friends 
of the ticket who are constantly drumming at the Ad- 
ministration, their motives and purposes ought not to be 
misunderstood and they should not be permitted to con- 
ceal their misdeeds by the cry of 'stop thief.' You see I 
do not claim any decent treatment for myself, though 
I am not able to see where I have forfeited it." 

Hill won a sweeping victory, his plurality over his 
Republican opponent being more than ten times as large 
as that of Cleveland over Blaine in 1884, and his total 
vote falling only sixty-one thousand below the New York 
Democratic presidential vote in that year. It was a vic- 
tory most pleasing to the Cleveland partisans who were 
not in a position to read its true meaning; but to the Presi- 
dent himself, gifted with the seeing eye, it was far from 
being a victory in praise of Grover Cleveland, friend of 
civil service reform. 

Never given to self-adulation or smug complacency, 
he was conscious then, as he was made more conscious 



FACING THE POLITICAL BREAD-LINE 157 

later, that, despite his best efforts to lead his party in the 
right direction, a great and dangerous political machine 
composed of Federal office holders was slowly fastening 
its grip upon the party, with the purpose of perpetuating 
Democratic control, and that David B. Hill was increas- 
ingly regarded as a coming Moses, fit to lead them out 
of the wilderness of non-partisan government and exas- 
perating reform. The progress of the new year, 1886, 
saw this tendency steadily increasing; and Hill's refer- 
ences in his inaugural address to New York Governors 
who had become national leaders, indicated the workings 
of his ambition. 

In view of this fact, and in view of the lessons of his 
Eaton letter, Mr. Cleveland might have been pardoned, 
had he maintained a discreet silence regarding the grow- 
ing evil of official interference in partisan politics. In- 
deed, he might have escaped the censure of others had he 
set his mind toward the building of a personal machine 
of office holders. Instead, however, he astonished the 
machine men, delighted the reformers, and threw con- 
sternation into the ranks of his closest partisan advisers 
by issuing the following drastic executive order: 

Executive Mansion, Washington, 

July 14, 1886. 

I deem this a proper time to especially warn all sub- 
ordinates in the several departments and all office-holders 
under the General Government against the use of their 
official positions in attempts to control political move- 
ments in their localities. 

Office-holders are the agents of the people — not their 
masters. Not only is their time and labor due to the 
Government, but they should scrupulously avoid in their 



158 GROVER CLEVELAND 

political action, as well as in the discharge of their official 
duty, offending by a display of obtrusive partisanship 
their neighbors who have relations with them as public 
officials. 

They should also constantly remember that their party 
friends from whom they have received preferment, have 
not invested them with the power of arbitrarily manag- 
ing their political affairs. They have no right as office- 
holders to dictate the political action of their party as- 
sociates or to throttle freedom of action within party 
lines by methods and practices which pervert every use- 
ful and justifiable purpose of party organization. 

The influence of Federal office-holders should not be 
felt in the manipulation of political primary meetings 
and nominating conventions. The use by these officials 
of their positions to compass their selection as delegates 
to political conventions is indecent and unfair, and proper 
regard for the proprieties and requirements of official 
place will also prevent their assuming the active conduct 
of political campaigns. 

Individual interest and activity in political affairs 
are by no means condemned. Office-holders are neither 
disfranchised nor forbidden the exercise of political 
privileges, but their privileges are not enlarged, nor is 
their duty to party increased to pernicious activity by 
office-holding. 

A just discrimination in this regard between the things 
a citizen may properly do and the purposes for which 
a public office should not be used is easy. In the light 
of a correct appreciation of the relation between the 
people and those intrusted with official place, and a con- 
sideration of the necessity, under our form of government, 
of political action free from official coercion. You are 



FACING THE POLITICAL BREAD-LINE 159 

requested to communicate the substance of these views 
to those for whose guidance they are intended. 

Grover Cleveland. 

With the autumn campaign came the inevitable test 
case, and for once the cautious President was found in- 
cautious, the careful investigator of facts spoke without 
a knowledge of the facts, thus inviting ridicule and insult 
which his many enemies gave freely, gladly, exultantly. 
Two Federal District Attorneys, Benton of Missouri, a 
Democrat, and Stone of Pennsylvania, a Republican, had 
made campaign speeches and President Cleveland, with- 
out sufficient inquiry into the facts, suspended both. At 
once Benton, the Democrat, pleaded for restoration on 
the ground that his speeches had in no way interfered 
with his official duties. Convinced upon this point, Mr. 
Cleveland ordered that Benton be restored to his post. 
At the announcement of this decision, the other suspended 
District Attorney, Stone, appealed for restoration on the 
ground that his suspension had been for the same reasons 
as that of Benton. "I made but two speeches prior to the 
receipt of the order of suspension," he said, "nor . . . 
did I in any particular neglect the duties of my office." 

After carefully weighing Stone's plea. President 
Cleveland drafted a refusal in these words : 

Executive Mansion, 

Nov. 23, 1886. 
Hon. a. H. Garland, Attorney General. 
Dear Sir: 

I have read the letter of the i8th inst. written to you 
by William A. Stone, lately suspended from office as 
District Attorney for the western district of Pennsylvania, 



l6o GROVER CLEVELAND 

and the subject matter to which it refers has received my 
careful consideration. I shall not impute to the writer 
any mischievous motive in his plainly erroneous assump- 
tion that his case and that of M. E. Benton, recently sus- 
pended and reinstated, rest upon the same state of facts, 
but prefer to regard his letter as containing the best state- 
ment possible upon the question of his reinstatement. 

You remember, of course, that soon after the present 
administration was installed, and, I think, nearly a year 
and a half ago, I considered with you certain charges 
which had been preferred against Mr. Stone as a federal 
official. You remember, too, that the action we then con- 
templated was withheld by reason of the excuses and ex- 
planations of his friends. These excuses and explanations 
induced me to believe that Mr. Stone's retention would 
insure a faithful performance of official duty; and that 
whatever offensive partisanship he had deemed justifiable 
in other circumstances, he would, during his continuance 
in office at his request under an administration opposed 
to him in political creed and policy, content himself with 
a quiet and unobtrusive enjoyment of his political privi- 
leges. . . . 

Mr. Stone, when permitted to remain in office, became 
a part of the business organization of the present adminis- 
tration, bound by every obligation of honor to assist, 
within his sphere, in its successful operation. This obli- 
gation involved not only the proper performance of 
official duty, but a certain good faith and fidelity which, 
while not exacting the least sacrifice of political principle, 
forbade active participation in purely partisan demon- 
strations of a pronounced type, undertaken for the purpose 
of advancing partisan interests, and conducted upon the 
avowed theory that the administration of the government 
was not entitled to the confidence and respect of the 



FACING THE POLITICAL BREAD-LINE i6l 

people. There is no dispute whatever concerning the fact 
that Mr, Stone did join others who were campaigning 
the State of Pennsylvania in opposition to the adminis- 
tration. It appears, too, that he was active and prominent 
with noisy enthusiasm in attendance upon at least two 
large public meetings; that the speeches at such meet- 
ings were largely devoted to abuse and misrepresentation 
of the administration; that he approved all this and 
actually addressed the meetings himself in somewhat the 
same strain; that he attended such meetings away from 
his home for the purpose of making such addresses, and 
that he was advertised as one of the speakers at each of 
the said meetings. 

I shall accept as true the statement of Mr. Stone that 
the time spent by him in thus demonstrating his willing- 
ness to hold a profitable office at the hands of the ad- 
ministration which he endeavored to discredit with the 
people, and which had kindly overlooked his previous 
offenses, did not result in the neglect of ordinary official 
duty. But his conduct has brought to light such an un- 
friendliness toward the administration which he pretends 
to serve and of which he is nominally a part, and such a 
subsequent lack of loyal interest in its success, that the 
safest and surest guaranty of his faithful service is, in my 
opinion, entirely wanting. . . . Mr. Stone and others of 
like disposition are not to suppose that party lines are so 
far obliterated that the administration of the government 
is to be trusted in places high or low to those who aggres- 
sively and constantly endeavor, unfairly to destroy the 
confidence of the people in the party responsible for such 
administration. . . . Upon a full consideration of all I 
have before me, I am constrained to decline the applica- 
tion of Mr. Stone for his reinstatement. 



1 62 GROVER CLEVELAND 

I inclose his letter with this, and desire you to acquaint 
him with my decision. 

Yours truly, 

Grover Cleveland. 

Upon the publication of this letter, the anti-Cleveland 
press opened their largest vials of wrath, declaring the 
discrimination against Mr. Stone to be "a presidential 
sop to the Bourbon Cerberus of the spoils system." This 
criticism was unfair, as no rules have ever been operative 
in this or any other country whereby a subordinate is 
protected in office while openly seeking to deprive his 
superior of public confidence. President Cleveland had 
generously continued Stone in office, despite the fact that 
he had been an active anti-Cleveland campaigner in 1884; 
but the warning of July 14, 1886, had been specific and 
should have been sufficient. Stone had flagrantly dis- 
regarded it, and his removal was, therefore, entirely 
just. 

The weakness of the President's position lay in the 
fact that, in his effort to differentiate the two cases, he 
had incautiously assumed that Benton, being a Democrat, 
had spoken in defense of the Administration. *'I did not 
intend," he wrote in ordering Benton's restoration, "to 
condemn the making of a political speech by a Federal 
official ... if the speech itself was decent and fair." 
When the full body of evidence became available, how- 
ever, it appeared that Benton had attacked President 
Cleveland's dearest policies quite as violently as any 
Republican could have done. "I heard Colonel M. E. 
Benton's speech, October nth," wrote the editor of the 
North Missourian, on November 27th." . . . Among 
other things Colonel Benton said: "Democracy is the 



FACING THE POLITICAL BREAD-LINE 1 63 

poor and ignorant party of this country — the great bare- 
footed, unwashed, dirty-socked party. ... I don't agree 
with Mr. Cleveland in everything. I don't believe in his 
Civil Service humbuggery. ... I don't agree with Mr. 
Cleveland on the silver question. He was raised east of 
the Alleghany Mountains, and he gets his ideas from that 
region. He never has been west of Buffalo, and has not 
any more idea of the great west . . . than the mere 
schoolboy who learns it from studying geography. He 
gets his ideas on finance from the gold bugs of Wall Street, 
who once demonetized silver and had it — the dollar — 
stricken from the coinage act clandestinely. . . . He 
learns his financial theories from Wall Street, the leeches 
that suck the blood of the honest yeomanry of the west, 
like vampires." In view of such facts it is clear that Mr. 
Cleveland's mistake was not in refusing to restore Stone, 
but in restoring Benton without first making certain that 
he had been "decent and fair." 

That this was a mistake is beyond question, and it 
shook the ranks of Mr. Cleveland's Mugwump followers. 
At the suggestion of a number of Cleveland Independent 
leaders, Carl Schurz wrote to the President, with brutal 
frankness : "Until recently . . . the worst things tied to 
your charge were construed as mere errors of judgment, 
and occasionally a certain stubbornness of temper in stick- 
ing to an error once committed. But . . . this confiding 
belief has been seriously shaken by your action in . . . 
the Benton-Stone case. This was not a mere mistake as 
to the character or qualifications of a person, or an error 
owing to misinformation. This was a retreat from a po- 
sition of principld^— a backdown apparently for partisan 
reasons or under partisan dictation. The letters with 
which that retreat was sought to be covered made the 
matter only worse, and the subsequent revelation of the 



164 GROVER CLEVELAND 

fact that the Democrat, Benton, had really attacked your 
administration while the Republican, Stone, had cau- 
tiously abstained from doing so, has poured over all pro- 
fessions of principle or impartiality in the proceeding 
a flood of ridicule which is even more hateful than severe, 
serious criticism. . . . This one step has greatly di- 
minished the number of those who were confident that^ 
whatever you did, if not always well done, was at least 
always well meant. ... It seems no exaggeration to say 
that your action in the Benton-Stone case is the worst 
blow the Democratic party has suffered since 1884. It 
has been received with jubilant shouts by your worst 
enemies, such as the New York Sun, who wish not only 
to defeat but to disgrace you." 

But the tasks of a President are many, and mistakes 
are inevitable, while it is also inevitable that even friends 
will at times impute motives which the facts do not justify. 
The interpretation of the Independents was unfair to 
the President, who was honestly striving to live up 
to his pledge, and, being only human, was failing, at 
times. 

Perhaps an even sounder point of criticism was the 
fact that, despite Mr. Cleveland's wise declaration in the 
order of July 14, 1886, that "the influences of Federal 
office holders should not be felt in the manipulation of 
political primary meetings and nominating conventions," 
the nominating conventions and primaries of 1886 had 
witnessed again the effects of that type of pernicious par- 
tisanship, far more dangerous to free government than is 
mere participation in open campaigning, and there had 
been no dismissals upon that charge. It was indeed true, 
as his enemies vociferously asserted, that the punishment 
he had imposed had been for the lesser offense; for if the 
people can be left free to make their own nominations, in 



FACING THE POLITICAL BREAD-LINE 165 

unbossed, unpacked conventions, the master hand of 

officialdom being kept from interfering, they will be 

little injured by listening to campaign speeches by 
officials. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE EXECUTIVE 

"It is not the mere slothful acceptance of righteous political 
ideas, but the call to action for their enforcement and appli- 
cation, that tests the endurance and moral courage of men" 

— Grover Cleveland. 

FROM the beginning of the history of popular govern- 
ment to the present day there has gone on a ceaseless 
conflict between the Executive and those whose ''advice 
and consent" was essential to effective administration. 
Indeed, it is not too much to say that the history of the 
phrase "advice and consent" is the history of the gradual 
evolution of the British Parliament from the Anglo- 
Saxon Witenagemot, or Assembly of Wise Men, and the 
Norman Great Council of the Realm. Go back into Eng- 
lish history as far as constitutional documents permit, and 
always, in every period, written in Latin, in French, or 
in English, appear the words "with the advice and 
consent." 

In 759 King Sigiraed gave lands to Bishop Eardwulf 
"with the advice and consent of my principal men." In 
774 Alcred, King of Northumbria, "by the advice and 
consent of all his people . . . exchanged the majesty of 
empire for exile," according to a contemporary chronicle. 
Henry II issued the Forest Assize of 1 184 "by the advice 
and consent of the archbishops, bishops, barons, earles, 
and nobles of England." The Wicked King John ac- 
knowledged that his subjects were to be taxed "by the com- 
mon advice and assent of our Council." Henry III as- 

166 



THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE EXECUTIVE 1 67 

cended the throne "by the common advice and consent 
of the said king and the magnates," and Bracton, the 
prince of medieval lawyers, declares: "The laws of Eng- 
land cannot be changed or destroyed without the common 
advice and consent of all those by whose advice and con- 
sent they were promulgated." During all those centuries 
the people through their representatives, a term of in- 
creasing definiteness of meaning, struggled with the 
crown, first to win power, and later to defend and enlarge 
it. By "the glorious revolution of 1688" they became 
supreme, and at once the Crown devised a system of 
patronage by which the executive power could control, 
by indirection, a legislature no longer amenable to the 
direct control of earlier days. 

Meanwhile the English colonies in America had nat- 
urally fallen into the ancient formula, performing their 
simple acts of government "by and with the advice and 
consent" of whatever their legislative branch happened 
to be called. The old statute book of North Carolina 
opened with the phrase: "Be it enacted by his Excellency 
Gabriel Johnston, Esq., Governor, by and with the advice 
and consent of his Majesty's Council and General As- 
sembly." And New York, Delaware, Maryland, South 
Carolina, and Georgia prefaced their statutes by that 
selfsame phrase. 

After the Revolution, when the weak articles of con- 
federation were leading the new nation toward anarchy, 
the Constitutional Convention of 1787 assembled at Phila- 
delphia to prepare for a more perfect union. Every 
lawyer there had thumbed the English statute books, read- 
ing each time the ancient phrase, "by and with the advice 
and consent." And many of the delegates were accus- 
tomed to its use in their state constitutions. It was nat- 
ural, therefore, that the convention, when seeking a 



1 68 GROVER CLEVELAND 

phrase to describe the proposed action of the Senate to 
which was to be given the right of passing upon executive 
appointments, should have provided that "he (the Presi- 
dent) shall nominate, and by and with the advice and 
consent of the Senate shall appoint ambassadors, other 
public ministers, and consuls, etc." Thus the power of 
appointment was definitely assigned to what at first sight 
appears a combination — the President, with the advice 
and consent of the Senate sitting in executive session. The 
word "advice," however, soon lost its independent mean- 
ing and became "merged in 'consent,' " as Wharton in- 
forms us, and thus consent alone was left to the Senate, 
which could check the President's power of appointment, 
but could not properly claim to share it. 

The question of whether removals from office were to 
be made by the President alone, or by the President with 
the consent of the Senate was unfortunately left unde- 
termined. In the beginning it was generally recognized 
that the power of removal rested with the President, inde- 
pendently, the first Congress having affirmed this princi- 
ple after a conflict which Senator Evarts later charac- 
terized as "the most important and best considered debate 
in the history of Congress." But little importance at- 
tached to the matter, however, during our first forty years 
under the Constitution, as there were, during that period, 
less than a hundred removals. Washington, although 
frankly declaring that he would never, knowingly, ap- 
point a man opposed to the policies of his administration, 
would have scorned the suggestion that he should remove 
an officer so opposed, in order to give his post to one who 
professed agreement. John Adams was almost equally 
generous, although the bitterness of recently developed 
party politics made his temptations far greater. It is 
true that when Jefferson became President, after what 



THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE EXECUTIVE 169 

he termed "the Revolution of 1800," and found the offices 
packed with Federalists, he exclaimed: "If a due par- 
ticipation of office is a matter of right, how are vacancies 
to be obtained? Those by death are few, by resignation 
none. Can any other mode than that of removal be pro- 
posed?" But despite the apparent menace of the words, 
he contented himself with displacing thirty-nine officials, 
and his three immediate successors each fell short of this 
record. 

When Andrew Jackson and his new-style democracy 
swept into power, however, this condition was suddenly 
and ruthlessly altered. Feeling the need of places for 
his followers, Jackson suggested that all civil service posts 
be put under the four years' law, a change which would 
have produced executive pandemonium every four years. 
And when the Senate refused to countenance this plan, 
he made places by wholesale removals, two thousand 
official heads falling within the first year. At once the 
Senate, realizing the political power represented by the 
control of removals upon such a scale, showed a dispo- 
sition to share it with him; but they found Jackson like 
a lion in the path, and promptly desisted. 

Against the weaker Presidents who followed Jackson, 
senatorial encroachment was comparatively easy. Each 
Senator had only to let his fellow Senators know that he 
would help confirm appointees from their states in return 
for reciprocal favors, and lo! in their joint control lay 
the patronage of the nation. It mattered not that both 
removals and nominations must come from the President. 
Confirmations must come from the Senate, and the Presi- 
dent soon found himself obliged to make his nominations 
fit the cogs of senatorial local machines, or the executive 
national car would not move. "The courtesy of the 
Senate," as its inventors euphemistically termed this sim- 



lyo GROVER CLEVELAND 

pie scheme of silence and division, enabled the Senate 
to extend its constitutional right of confirmation so as to 
make it cover also removals from office. By an ingenious 
expansion they argued that before they could knovsr 
whether Mr. Y. was worthy of being confirmed for a 
Federal office, they must be shown that Mr. Y.'s pre- 
decessor had been properly removed from that office. 

The climax of this interesting development of sena- 
torial encroachment upon powers long admitted to be 
purely executive, came in 1867. By one audacious enact- 
ment, the Tenure of Office Act, the Senate grasped com- 
plete control of both appointments and removals, and 
reduced the executive branch of the Government to the 
humiliating position of a mere executive agency, bound 
to ask leave of the Senate when called upon to deal with 
its own subordinates. This law limited the executive 
power of removal to suspension which, even during con- 
gressional recess, could be only for "misconduct ... or 
crime," which misconduct or crime must be reported to 
the Senate with the evidence and reasons for the Presi- 
dent's action, within twenty days after the reconvening 
of that body. If the Senate refused to approve the action 
of the President, the suspended official was at liberty 
forthwith to return to his post. Thus, by action of a 
co-ordinate branch of the government, the great presi- 
dential office, which in Jackson's time had invented the 
spoils system, was deprived of its power of appointment, 
as well as its power of removal. The United States Senate 
had fulfilled to the letter the prediction which James 
Wilson had made in the Convention of 1787: "The Presi- 
dent will not be the man of the people, but the minion 
of the Senate." 

The use made of this inflated senatorial power of 
patronage was demoralizing in the extreme. United 



THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE EXECUTIVE 171 

States Senators became autocrats in state politics, "spoil- 
ing" their way to re-election by the not too subtle power 
of the plum. And before the days of reconstruction were 
ended, indignant public opinion and more indignant ex- 
ecutive protest compelled a revision of the Tenure of 
Office Act which, by the law of April 5, 1869, was shorn 
of its most obnoxious features. The sections of the act 
regulating suspensions were entirely repealed, and provi- 
sions were substituted which, instead of limiting the causes 
of suspension to misconduct, and crime, expressly per- 
mitted such suspension by the President "in his discre- 
tion," and abandoned the requirement that he report 
to the Senate "the evidence and reasons" for his action. 

The amendment, however, failed to restore to the 
Executive the full freedom of removal which he had en- 
joyed in early days, and as such was far from satisfac- 
tory to succeeding Presidents. Under it the President, 
while free to make removals, not mere suspensions, was 
required, "within thirty days after the commencement 
of each session, ... to nominate persons to fill all va- 
cancies." If the Senate rejected a nomination, the Presi- 
dent was expected to make another, and to proceed thus 
until an agreement was reached. But the officer dis- 
missed was not free to resume his office, however long 
the disagreement between President and Senate. 

Against these remaining limitations President Grant 
vigorously protested, declaring in his first annual mes- 
sage that their provisions were "inconsistent with the 
faithful and efficient administration of the Government" 
and should be totally repealed. President Hayes made a 
similar demand; and Garfield, during his brief period as 
head of the nation, bitterly denounced "the usurpation 
by the Senate of a large share of appointing power," de- 
claring: "The President can remove no officer without 



172 GROVER CLEVELAND 

the consent of the Senate . . . unless the successor is 
agreeable to the Senator in the state where the appointee 
resides — a power most corrupting and dangerous." It 
was, furthermore, the frank opinion of most of the law- 
yers, both in and out of the Senate, that the Tenure of 
Office Act, even in its altered form, was unconstitutional. 
But the question was not passed upon by the courts and 
although the House of Representatives upon three oc- 
casions declared for the repeal of the laws, the Senate 
would not concur. And so until the days of President 
Cleveland successive Presidents vainly fretted because 
of what they considered legislative encroachments, de- 
sirous of freeing themselves from the remains of the 
Tenure of Office Act, but unable to do so. 

In all the realm of political theory, in which indeed 
he wandered but little, there is no doctrine which Mr. 
Cleveland reverenced more highly than that of the sepa- 
ration of powers. That this was not due to any personal 
craving for power is shown by the fact that he was always 
ready, in the interest of civil service reform, to part with 
the control of patronage, the very essence of political in- 
fluence. It was due rather to his belief that in the definite 
division of powers lay the hope of efficient government. 

At the very beginning of his administration he re- 
ceived from political supporters definite and frequent 
warnings of the Senate's intention to encroach in the mat- 
ter of removals. With the impending conflict in mind, 
Bayard wrote: "I do not see how the President can bet- 
ter serve the Country than by keeping the lines of his 
official duties and powers clearly defined, neither stepping 
beyond them, nor allowing intrusion by anyone." And 
again: "If the discretion of Congress is to be substituted 
for that of the Executive the anomaly will appear of de- 



THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE EXECUTIVE 173 

priving the only officer having the duty and power and 
opportunity of supervision ... of all control." 

These warnings confirmed Mr. Cleveland's own fears, 
and in his opening message to the Forty-ninth Congress 
he sounded a note which was dangerously like a warning 
to the Senate. "It is well," he said, "for us to bear in 
mind that our usefulness to the people's interests will be 
promoted by a constant appreciation of the scope and 
character of our respective bodies as they relate to Fed- 
eral legislation. . . . Contemplation of the grave and 
responsible functions assigned to the respective branches 
of the Government under the Constitution will disclose 
the partitions of power between our respective depart- 
ments and their necessary independence, and also the need 
for the exercise of all the power entrusted to each in that 
spirit of comity and co-operation which is essential to 
the proper fulfilment of the patriotic obligations which 
rest upon us as faithful servants of the people." 

This statement set forth in unmistakable terms the 
theory by which he proposed to conduct his administra- 
tion; and those who knew him realized that the co-ordi- 
nate branch was expected to order its affairs in accordance. 
He regarded it not as his own political theory, but as the 
theory upon which the people had constructed their 
state. He had studied the law, and was formally expound- 
ing it to his fellow workers, in order that needless friction 
might be avoided. Furthermore, it was his mature con- 
viction that removals from office were not intended by 
the Constitution to be in any way subject to the will of the 
Senate, and he was determined to guard the prerogatives 
of his department, cost what it might, offend whom it 
might. A conflict with the Senate was thus inevitable. 

Within the legal limit of a month after the assembling 
of his first Congress, President Cleveland sent to the 



174 GROVER CLEVELAND 

Senate the names of the persons whom he had selected 
to take the places of officials suspended during vacation. 
There were six hundred and forty-three in all, and at 
once members of Senate committees prepared to insist 
that the President give his reasons for the removal of the 
officers whose places he was thus proposing to fill. That 
concession made, the Senate would again be in the saddle. 
They first asked the heads of executive departments for 
reasons for the removals. At the direction of the Presi- 
dent, this request was refused on the ground that "the 
public interest would not be thereby promoted" or that 
"the reasons related to a purely executive act." Requests 
of this character at last became so numerous that a set 
form of reply was prescribed by the President. 

This mild method of encroachment having failed, 
the Senators prepared to turn the screw which had so 
often brought from Executives a reluctant submission. 
"If we can't get the information we want," declared one 
prominent Republican Senator, . . . "we can let some of 
the appointees broil a while in fear that they will get no 
salaries." This suggestion the Senate promptly adopted. 
They left the President's nominations to slumber in the 
senatorial committees to which they had been referred 
and, diplomatically but definitely, intimated that they 
would at once confirm every nomination if he would pub- 
licly declare that he had made removals and appoint- 
ments for political reasons. Their object was, of course, 
to induce him to repudiate his reform pledges, and by 
thus discrediting the party to which he belonged, in- 
crease the strength of the opposing party which con- 
trolled the Senate. Equally, of course, the plan was 
a failure. The President would not barter. 

To argue as did the New York Tribune that the 
Senate was acting in the interest of publicity for the facts 



THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE EXECUTIVE 175 

concerning removals w^as manifestly to flatter that body. 
Their aim w^as not publicity, but control of removals. 
Such matters as confirmations they themselves considered 
far from openly. At any moment, upon demand of two 
Senators, the galleries would be cleared, the doors locked, 
and the publicity-loving Senate would settle down to a 
quiet game of office trading. 

Convinced at last that neither by appeals to heads of 
departments nor by holding up appointments could they 
bring the President to an acknowledgment of their right 
to control removals, the senatorial majority tried another 
tack. On July 17, 1885, President Cleveland had re- 
moved George M. Duskin from his post as Federal At- 
torney for the southern district of Alabama, and had 
appointed John D. Burnett to the place thus vacated. In 
ignorance of the fact that Duskin's term had expired on 
December 20, 1885, and that for that reason his was a 
poor test case. Senator Edmunds, Chairman of the Com- 
mittee on the Judiciary, on December 26th requested the 
Attorney General of the United States to submit to it all 
information and papers relating to the nomination of 
Burnett, and to the removal of Duskin. 

On January 11, 1886, the Attorney General sent the 
former documents, but declared that he had received no 
direction from the President which would justify him 
in sending those relating to the suspension of Duskin. 
Within a few hours the Senate Judiciary Committee took 
up a discussion of the question, and that evening Senator 
Vest wrote to the President: 

''I think you should be apprized of what occurred 
this morning. ... A letter from the Attorney General 
was read. ... I then inquired of Mr. Edmunds, the 
Chairman, whether the Committee proposed to obtain 
the reasons of the President for removals and suspen- 



176 GROVER CLEVELAND 

sions. That for myself I denied any such right in the 
Committee — that we had the right to examine the quali- 
fications of persons nominated, but not the President's 
reasons for suspension. 

"Mr. Edmunds replied that he did not claim the right 
to know the President's reasons for suspension, but that 
committees of Congress had never been refused such 
courtesy by the President, etc. No one of the Republican 
senators present dissented from this position. Mr. Ed- 
munds clearly conceded the point, that the President 
had the exclusive Constitutional power to make removals 
and suspensions, for reasons satisfactory to him, without 
consulting the Senate." 

Despite this opinion, the Republican majority or- 
ganized a movement to force the President to yield to 
the demand of the Senate and contrived to make it appear 
that Mr. Cleveland refused the information required be- 
cause he dared not allow his reasons to be known. "His 
refusal," declared one of the leaders of the movement 
. . . "is enough to show that he has departed from his 
idea (of reform) and is now acting simply on the old- 
fashioned spoils system." 

Mr. Cleveland, while fully conscious of the purpose 
of the senatorial majority and determined to defend the 
prerogatives of his office, was equally determined to force 
his antagonists to become the open aggressors. He there- 
fore allowed the heads of departments to continue unable 
to grant the requests of the Senate and waited for requests 
to become demands. At that point actual strife between 
the Senate and the President would begin, and a far- 
sighted press predicted that the end of that strife would 
be the repeal of what remained of the Tenure of Office 
Act. 

On January 25, 1886, that point was reached. On that 



THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE EXECUTIVE 177 

day, in the face of the best legal opinion, the Senate defi- 
nitely directed the Attorney General "to transmit . . . 
copies of all documents . . . filed in the Department of 
Justice since the ist day of January, A. D. 1885, ^^ relation 
to the conduct of the office of District Attorney of the 
United States for the Southern District of Alabama." 

Affairs being thus brought to a head, the President 
took up with his advisers the question as to the precise 
form of refusal which the Attorney General should send 
to this demand. Mr. Cleveland's papers contain a num- 
ber of drafts, the most interesting of which is the follow- 
ing, written wholly in his "copper-plate." 

"I have to reply that all documents and papers relat- 
ing to the appointment of a District Attorney for the 
Southern District of Alabama have already been trans- 
mitted to the Judiciary Committee of the Senate. I am 
directed by the President to reply to that part of the 
resolution of the Senate adopted in Executive session call- 
ing on me to transmit all papers and documents touching 
the conduct of said officer, that it is not deemed consistent 
with the good of the public service to transmit to the 
Senate in executive session all the papers and documents 
without regard to their character which are in the posses- 
sion of this department in relation to the management 
and conduct of the office of District Attorney of the 
Southern District of Alabama." 

The reply actually sent by the Attorney General dif- 
fered considerably from this draft, though its meaning 
was identical with it: "I am directed by the President 
to refuse your demand." This was a challenge to battle, 
and the Senate Committee on the Judiciary promptly laid 
before the Senate a report censuring the Attorney General 
— and in effect the President — for his refusal, though a 



178 GROVER CLEVELAND 

minority presented a dissenting report agreeing with the 
position of the Executive. 

Up to this time the exchange of communications had 
been confined to committees of the Senate and heads of 
departments, neither the Senate itself nor the President 
being directly involved. But this resolution w^as a chal- 
lenge to the President himself upon the issue, whether 
the Executive is or is not invested with the right to remove 
officials without interference from the Senate. Upon 
that question. President Cleveland entertained no doubts. 
Freely as he recognized the duty of the Executive to 
avoid encroachments upon legislative power, he was no 
less clear that he was bound to transmit unimpaired to 
his successors the prerogatives of the executive office, 
which he considered "pre-eminently the people's office." 

"The only thing that gives me any real anxiety," he 
told a Boston reporter, on January 28th, "is that the 
people may get a false idea of my position, and imagine 
that I have done anything which I have the least ground 
to cover up. I have nothing to conceal, and am conscious 
that in exercising the power of suspension I have in every 
case been governed by a sense of duty and a regard for 
the good of the public service. Any and every proper 
inquiry, made in good faith and with a regard to the 
courtesies that have always prevailed . . . would have 
been answered. But that is not what is sought." And he 
added, deliberately, "I shall not submit to improper 
dictation." 

Soon rumors of a coming conflict between President 
and Senate formed the center of society gossip, newspaper 
speculation, and cloakroom conversations, throughout 
Washington, and gradually throughout the country. Let- 
ters poured in from every direction, full of advice, full 
of warning, full of solicitude. James Schouler, the his- 



THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE EXECUTIVE 1 79 

torlan, wrote: "The firm stand which it is understood 
that you intend taking against permitting the Senate to 
inquire into the reasons for your suspensions, I believe to 
be just, constitutional, and politic. ... I do not see how 
any papers bearing upon such cases could be furnished 
as a rule, without requiring some further explanation of 
reasons. And if you were once to put your high preroga- 
tives before the present Senate, in any deprecating tone, 
they would not show magnanimity in return." 

Other and more cautious friends pleaded with him 
not to become involved in conflict with the Senate, but 
to no purpose. In vain did Carl Schurz ply him with 
pages of fatherly advice, urging him to yield. "The Re- 
publican Senators," wrote the latter, "are not going to 
let this matter rest. Some of them are in possession of 
cases of removal which have an ugly partisan look. You 
refuse all information about them. They contrive some 
way of investigating them, and they certainly have the 
power, and are likely to do that. Some of the cases in 
question are brought out before the public as removals 
on mere partisan grounds, in direct violation of your 
pledges. Suppose this contingency — in what light will 
it leave you?" 

It was characteristic of Mr. Cleveland that he paid 
very little attention to the question "In what light will it 
leave you?" His fight was for principle, not for personal 
prestige. After reading this letter, and many like it, he 
turned, quite unmoved, to the task of drafting his mes- 
sage of March i, 1886, which frankly avowed the opinion 
that in censuring the Attorney General the Senate Com- 
mittee had in reality censured the President. "These sus- 
pensions are my executive acts . . ." he said, "I am 
wholly responsible." "The letter of the Attorney Gen- 
eral . . . .was written at my suggestion and by my direc- 



l8o GROVER CLEVELAND 

tion." "I am not responsible to the Senate, and I am 
unwilling to submit my actions ... to them for judg- 
ment." 

In elaborate detail he argued the question of the inde- 
pendence of the Executive in matters of removals. He 
drew a clear distinction between documents official in 
character, and documents purely unofficial and private. 
The former he declared himself ready and willing to 
transmit to the Senate on demand; the latter he declined 
to deliver, regarding them as ''having reference to the 
performance of a duty exclusively mine." 

He made it abundantly clear that he disputed, un- 
equivocally, the right of the Senate, by the aid of any 
document whatever, or in any way "save through the ju- 
dicial process of trial by impeachment," to revise the 
acts of the Executive in the suspension of Federal officials. 
Vigorously he protested against the Senate's attempt to 
revive, after "nearly twenty years of almost innocuous 
desuetude," the laws which had hampered Andrew John- 
son. Baldly he declared the opinion that both the re- 
pealed and the unrepealed parts of the Tenure of Office 
Act were unconstitutional, and scornfully asked : "Why 
should the provisions of the repealed law ... be now 
in effect applied to the present Executive, instead of the 
law afterwards passed and unrepealed, which distinctly 
permits suspensions by the President 'in his discretion'?" 

He declared that the scores of demands which had 
been presented to the departments "have had but one 
complexion. They assume the right of the Senate to sit 
in judgment upon the exercise of my exclusive discretion 
and executive function, for which I am solely responsible 
to the people. . . . My oath to support and defend the 
Constitution, my duty to the people who have chosen me 
to execute the powers of their great office and not to re- 



THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE EXECUTIVE l8l 

linquish them, and my duty to the Chief Magistracy 
which I must preserve unimpaired in all its dignity and 
vigor compel me to refuse compliance. . . ." 

His remark about Andrevsr Johnson and impeachment 
W2LS no chance reference. He knew the temper of the 
Republican majority of 1886 better perhaps than John- 
son had known that of the Republican majority of 1868, 
and yet he dared thus to flaunt the idea of impeachment 
in the very face of his enemies. 

This message reiterates President Cleveland's fighting 
faith in the theory of the separation of powers, and his 
conception of the scope of those belonging to the office 
of President, a conception which in later years he thus 
compressed into a paragraph: "The members of the 
Convention (which formed the Constitution) were not 
willing . . . that the executive power which they had 
vested in the President should be cramped and em- 
barrassed by any implication that a specific statement of 
certain granted powers and duties excluded all" others. 
"Therefore . . . the Constitution supplements a recital 
of the specific powers and duties of the President with 
this impressive and conclusive additional requirement: 
'He shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.' 
This I conceive to be equivalent to a grant of all the power 
necessary to the performance of his duty in the faithful 
execution of the laws." 

This view of the President's powers is closely akin to 
that later formulated by President Roosevelt in the words : 
"My belief was that it was not only his right but his duty 
to do anything that the need of the nation demanded unless 
such action was forbidden by the Constitution or by the 
laws. ... I did not usurp power, but I did greatly 
broaden the use of Executive power. In other words, I 
acted for the public welfare, I acted for the common 



1 82 GROVER CLEVELAND 

well-being of all our people, whenever and In whatever 
manner was necessary, unless prevented by direct Con- 
stitutional or legislative prohibition." 

There is, however, one striking difference between 
the theories of these two Presidents: Mr. Cleveland felt 
that the Executive must carefully avoid encroachments 
upon the legislative power; while Mr. Roosevelt pro- 
fessed no such view. "In theory," the latter wrote in his 
autobiography, "the Executive has nothing to do with 
legislation. In practice, as things are, the Executive is 
or ought to be peculiarly representative of the people as 
a whole. As often as not the action of the Executive 
offers the only means by which the people can get the 
legislation they demand and ought to have. Therefore 
a good Executive . . . must take a very active interest 
in getting the right kind of legislation, in addition to per- 
forming his executive duties." In other words, Mr. 
Cleveland's interpretation was that the President is free 
to perform in the executive field functions of any char- 
acter not specifically forbidden; Mr. Roosevelt's inter- 
pretation was that he is thus free in both executive and 
legislative fields. 

For two weeks the Senate debated Mr. Cleveland's 
message of March i, 1886, the majority leaders fiercely 
attacking, and a minority vigorously defending. Senator 
Edmunds, in urging that the message be referred to the 
Committee on the Judiciary, used the suggestive words: 
"It very vividly brought to my mind the communication 
of King Charles I to Parliament, telling them what, in 
conducting their affairs, they ought to do and ought not 
to do." When at last the vote was taken, by a majority 
of thirty-two to twenty-five, the Attorney General, and 
by implication the President, was formally censured for 
withholding the documents which the Senate had de- 



THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE EXECUTIVE 183 

manded, as being an act "subversive of the fundamental 
principles of the Government." At this critical moment, 
the President calmly pointed out that as Duskin's term 
had expired before the controversy opened, the only ques- 
tion requiring action by the Senate was v^hether Burnett 
should be confirmed as his successor. As there w^as no 
special reason for displacing Burnett, who had now been 
several months in office, the confirmation was made and 
the immediate conflict was over. 

But in the sequel lies the chief result of the President's 
determined fight. Senator Hoar, one of the leaders of 
the anti-Cleveland forces in this conflict, himself "took 
the first opportunity to introduce a bill repealing the pro- 
visions of the statute relating to the tenure of office . . ." 
as his autobiography declares, "so that we might go back 
again to the law which had been in force from the foun- 
dation of the Government." The bill was introduced in 
December, 1886, and on the third of the following March 
received the ready approval of the President. Looking 
back, in reminiscent mood, in 1904, Senator Hoar wrote: 
"I do not think a man can be found in the Senate now 
who would wish to go back to the law." 

Thus ended, in a manner wholly satisfactory to Mr. 
Cleveland, the most important and far-reaching of the 
many conflicts of his first administration. The time- 
honored boundaries of executive power were restored, 
and Presidents were again free to deal with their subor- 
dinates without senatorial suspension or control. Once 
more the mountain had labored; but it had this time 
produced something more than the traditional mouse. 
It has been said with truth that in the field of political 
theory Grover Cleveland left no monuments; but in his 
reassertion of the independence of the Executive he left 
a restoration more valuable than many a new creation. 



184 GROVER CLEVELAND 

Long before his fight for the independence of the 
Executive was over, Mr. Cleveland had willfully and de- 
liberately compromised it for all future time by persuad- 
ing the beautiful Frances Folsom, daughter of his former 
law partner, Oscar Folsom, to fix the second day of June 
as her wedding day. Soon after her graduation from 
Wells College, in June, 1 885, Miss Folsom and her mother 
had sailed for Europe, not to study the social machinery 
of court life, as the newspapers later informed an inter- 
ested public, but to travel and study. Although the en- 
gagement had taken place before the boat sailed, the secret 
had been jealously guarded and had not been suspected by 
the public. A bon voyage telegram from the President, 
which the operator generously sent broadcast over the 
country, had for the time being set the tongues of gossip 
wagging, but they wagged more slowly as the months 
passed without bringing further news. Indeed, they had 
almost ceased altogether when there came a letter from 
the bride-elect to a friend announcing in confidence her 
engagement. The injunction to secrecy was, however, 
not in the beginning, but in a later paragraph, and the 
recipient read the letter aloud at the breakfast table, only 
stopping when she reached the command for silence. 

A few days later, the President was driving with an 
old friend and her daughter when the latter called his 
attention to a newspaper clipping which intimated that 
the President was going to marry Mrs. Folsom. To 
which the President promptly answered: 'T don't see 
why the papers keep marrying me to old ladies all the 
while — I wonder why they don't say I am engaged to 
marry her daughter." It was natural that gossip should 
connect his name with the handsome widow of his former 
friend, rather than with the beautiful daughter of twenty- 
two, to whom, since the death of her father, he had stood 



THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE EXECUTIVE 185 

almost in loco parentis. During her father's life he had 
been an ever welcome guest in the house, had supplied 
her with her first baby carriage, and after Mr. Folsom's 
death, he had, as administrator of the estate, won the 
heart of the little girl of thirteen by allowing her to copy 
certain legal papers connected with her father's afifairs. 
He had encouraged her to call him "Uncle Cleve," and 
had given her a frisky bull-terrier puppy. When she 
entered college, Mayor Cleveland, of Buffalo, had asked 
permission to write to her, being conscious for the first 
time that she was now a woman, and had kept her college 
room bright with flowers. 

When Mr. Cleveland was notified of his nomination 
for Governor of New York, "Frank," as he always called 
her, had attended with her mother. Later, she had occu- 
pied the Governor's box upon public occasions, and had 
received visits from him upon his frequent trips to 
Buffalo, upon one of which she had annoyed His Excel- 
lency by keeping him waiting for a reception. She had 
not been able to attend his inauguration as President, but 
had gone with her mother to pay him a visit at the White 
House a few months later. 

On the whole, the only relationship of which the 
public was aware was something very much like guar- 
dianship, although Mr. Cleveland had never been her 
legal guardian. By degrees that relationship had changed, 
and before her commencement day she had given her 
consent to become "the first lady of the land." It was 
his wise counsel which had carried her through to the 
degree; and it was in accordance with his wishes that she 
made her trip to Europe. 

Upon her arrival in New York, Miss Folsom was an 
object of such enthusiastic interest that, in order to avoid 
reporters, she was transferred to a tender and landed at 



1 86 GROVER CLEVELAND 

an uptown pier. But the next morning small newsboys, 
with characteristic disregard of fact and chronology, went 
about the streets calling, "Here's your morning Sun; all 
about the President's wife." Before the end of that day a 
definite announcement appeared. 

On June 2, 1886, the wedding took place, according to 
schedule, in the Blue Room of the White House, the 
Reverend Dr. Sunderland officiating, and using a cere- 
mony written especially for the occasion, but materially 
revised and condensed by the President. In it the bride 
is made to promise "to love . . . honor, comfort, and 
keep." The papers delighted in the fact that the bride's 
veil was six yards long; the President, that the list of 
guests was so short as to avoid the sensation of a function, 
there being all told only thirty-one persons present, in- 
cluding the bride and groom. A host, however, was rep- 
resented by urgent requests that certain garments for- 
warded to Miss Folsom be worn at the wedding and re- 
turned as souvenirs. Amid the deluge of letters inevitable 
to such an event was the following, from Joe James, a 
Chinese resident of Philadelphia: 

Mister President: 

I am glad you marrie to bear plenty good fruits to 
the nation, and I congratulate to your marriage all enjoy 
yourself. I read your letter you so kind to our Chinese 
living here, and instruct the Government to protect the 
Chinese and be please to live everywhere. So I thank 
your kindness ever so much. I heard you on June 2d 
to be marrie. So I send a little present to you and the 
bride. I hope you enjoy yourself to received it. One 
china ivory fan, with sandalwood box, for the bride; one 
ivory card-case for the President, all sent by mail. I 
hope God bless you in prosperity in all things. 



THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE EXECUTIVE 187 

The letter bears the writer's signature in Chinese as 
well as in English. A few days later Joe James's Orien- 
tal heart was made glad by an autograph letter of thanks 
from the President of the United States. 

Immediately after the wedding, the President and his 
bride repaired to Deer Park, in the mountains of Mary- 
land; and it was not long before they were experiencing, 
to a painful degree, the sensation of being exploited before 
an eager public. A President on a honeymoon was some- 
thing of a gold mine to ambitious reporters with eyes 
on space. No incident of the life at the Deer Park lodge 
could be too trivial for use, and the President and his wife 
were literally compassed about with reporters. The 
persecutors erected a whispering post opposite the cottage 
and, armed with powerful field glasses, settled down to 
the task of telling the public how a newly married Presi- 
dent of the United States passes his time. 

"They have," wrote Mr. Cleveland to the New York 
Evening Post, "used the enormous power of the modern 
newspaper to perpetuate and disseminate a colossal im- 
pertinence, and have done it, not as professional gossips 
and tattlers, but as the guides and instructors of the public 
in conduct and morals. And they have done it, not to a 
private citizen, but to the President of the United States, 
thereby lifting their offence into the gaze of the whole 
world, and doing their utmost to make American jour- 
nalism contemptible in the estimation of people of good 
breeding everywhere." 

But Mr. Cleveland was mistaken if he thought that 
the people were not interested in his affairs. The news- 
papers, while certainly sufficiently contemptible in the 
President's eyes, were merely doing their best to live up 
to the expectations of their readers. Every item of news 
or gossip concerning the august couple was eagerly 



1 88 GROVER CLEVELAND 

scanned by an interested public. When the Elmira 
Gazette declared: "President Cleveland is not dead- 
heading during his honeymoon. He pays for his special 
train to Deer Park, pays for his cottage, pays for his 
board, and pays for his horses. That is the kind of Presi- 
dent he is," its readers were grateful for the information. 
When the Union adorned its columns with the words: 
''The word 'obey' was not included in the vows," another 
worthy group was gratified. And when the Springfield 
Republican, with an eye to local glory worthy of a pro- 
fessional western town boomer, called attention to the 
fact that the bride and groom were both descended from 
early settlers of Springfield, it scored a scoop in that sec- 
tion of the country. "In the land granted by the town 
to the men of about 1640," it said, "the lot of Henry Burt, 
Mr. Cleveland's ancestor, lay next to the lot of John Har- 
mon, Mrs. Cleveland's ancestor. The Burts and Har- 
mons lived out their allotted days in humdrum fashion; 
the children came and the old folks died, the years went 
on, and in due time President Cleveland married Miss 
Folsom. And so two family trees that were planted side 
by side in Springfield branched out until they are now 
entwined in the White House." 

The Honorable Chauncey M. Depew, writing to Dan 
Lamont, as Republican politician to Democratic poli- 
tician, gave this practical view of the meaning of a bride 
in the White House: "My only regret about it is that 
it will be so much harder for us to win against both Mr. 
and Mrs. Cleveland." 

But winning was little in the President's thoughts. 
He had won. 



CHAPTER VIII 

CLEVELAND AND THE VETERANS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

"/ have considered the pension list of the Republic a roll 
of honor." 

— Grover Cleveland. 

IT has ever been easy to arouse popular excitement 
upon the subject of the treatment of wounded or dis- 
abled soldiers, and this noble sentiment has been often 
played upon by designing men. Moreover, the Demo- 
cratic party has always been compelled to deal with more 
than usual caution with the question when it afifected 
soldiers who served in the Federal ranks during the Civil 
War, as any unwillingness to pass pension bills for such 
soldiers was certain to be interpreted as reflecting sym- 
pathy for the lost cause. For this reason Grover Cleve- 
land, as he looked over the pension system of the nation 
of which he was the chosen President, must have sum- 
moned all his courage. To allow the scandals which had 
developed to pass unrebuked was impossible for a man 
with his views of the duty of a President; to attempt to 
end them was to bring down more abuse from his enemies 
in both political parties. 

Under a just system of army pensions the maximum 
of expenditure on account of any war is reached within 
eight or ten years of its close. Thereafter death steadily 
diminishes the number of legitimate pensioners, and the 
size of the disbursement on their account. In 1866 there 
had been 126,722 pensioners drawing from the public 



190 GROVER CLEVELAND 

treasury, all told, about thirteen and a half million dollars 
annually. As the years passed these numbers steadily 
increased until, in 1873, there were more than 238,000 
names on the roll, which called for some $29,000,000 a 
year. From that time, mortality should have materially 
reduced the number of pensions; and if the congressional 
demagogues had kept their hands ofif, this would certainly 
have happened. 

But on January 25, 1879, was passed the Arrears of 
Pensions Act, which allowed every successful claimant 
to recover the amount to which he would have been en- 
titled if the pension had been granted at the time the dis- 
ability occurred. This placed a tremendous premium 
upon deception and fraud. Old soldiers whose wounds 
were long since healed began to discover that, after all, 
their injuries had been very serious. Men who had had 
an attack of fever in the army persuaded themselves that 
every ill they had since suffered was due to it. Before 
the passage of the act, the average of new claims had 
been 1,597 rnonthly; after its passage the average leaped 
to more than 10,000 a month, while thousands of claims 
already rejected were revived and pushed through. As 
a result, by the year 1885, when Grover Cleveland be- 
came President, there were 345,125 pensioners, drawing 
yearly more than sixty-five and a half million dollars, 
and the list was being steadily extended by the addition 
of names which represented only the most fantastic claims 
upon public bounty. 

Here, then, was a subject worthy of a President's best 
efforts. For to reform such a system would be not only 
to stop the robbery of the public treasury, but would re- 
move from a noble body of heroes a stigma which the 
selfish designs of unworthy schemers had fastened upon 
it. To be an honored list, a veteran pension roll must 



CLEVELAND AND THE VETERANS OF THE CIVIL WAR 191 

be a pure list, and every name entered by fraud is an 
injury which all honest soldiers resent. 

Mr. Cleveland, while anxious that the country should 
show not only a just but a generous appreciation of the 
services of the country's defenders, was determined that 
so far as was possible the money appropriated for pen- 
sions should be devoted to those who had suffered in the 
nation's service, and that such men should never find 
themselves "side by side on the pension roll with those 
who have been tempted to attribute the natural ills to 
which humanity is heir to service in the Army." In his 
first annual message to Congress he used the words: "It 
is fully as important that the rolls should be cleansed of 
all those who by fraud have secured a place therein, as 
that meritorious claims should be speedily examined and 
adjusted." For he was conscious of the existence of prac- 
tices which must be attacked as soon as the full body of 
facts was in his possession. 

These facts were of a character that would not bear 
the light of day. Conscienceless profiteers, intent upon 
coining into gold a noble public sentiment, had adopted 
the practice of disregarding the decisions of the Pension 
Bureau, and taking spurious claims directly to Congress 
in the form of private pension bills, which dishonest 
manipulators or too sentimental patriots steered through, 
as secretly as the rules would allow. It was a practice 
safe as well as profitable, for few politicians dared to re- 
sist, lest they be regarded as unpatriotic. 

Mr. Cleveland was not in an ideal position to become 
a champion of the people against this insidious form of 
corruption; for, lurking in the shadow, ready to be again 
brought forward at a moment's notice, was the figure 
of a certain George Brinski, native of Poland, who had 
served in the ranks of the Federal Army as the hired 



192 GROVER CLEVELAND 

substitute of one Grover Cleveland, Assistant District 
Attorney of Erie County. It mattered not at all that Mr. 
Cleveland's action in avoiding military service had been 
above reproach, in strict accord with law, and in response 
to the demands of filial duty. The circumstances were 
clear in his own memory, and they left his conscience void 
of offense: a widowed mother, watching her three sons 
"draw straws" from the family Bible to decide which of 
the three should remain at home to bear the unromantic 
burdens of bread-winner — this was the picture which a 
mention of the Civil War first called to his mind. Then 
came the memory of the draft, the hiring of a substitute 
when he might properly have pleaded exemption; and 
then the slanderous attacks of 1884 which had exhibited 
him as little better than a deserter. Well he knew that 
any attempt on his part to check the easy flow of fraudu- 
lent pensions would cause the old fires to burn again with 
the light of new slanders, but he knew that he must make 
the attempt. 

According to the habit which had made him a terror 
to the evildoers of Buffalo and Albany, he turned his 
attention to a study of the pension system in general, and 
of the individual bills presented for his signature. The 
results were amazing. Hundreds of bills had been passed 
by Congress on the most fantastic and fraudulent claims. 

Cuthbert Stone had been voted a pension on the 
ground that he had incurred a pensionable disability dur- 
ing his "long and faithful service" in the Army. The 
records of the War Department, however, showed that 
he enlisted October 25, 1861, and was reported as deserted 
from December 31st of that year until November, 1864. 
He was mustered out with his company some two months 
after the latter date, with no evidence of disability, and 
had filed no claim for pension until 1881, when he al- 



CLEVELAND AND THE VETERANS OF THE CIVIL WAR 1 93 

leged that he contracted a disability in the winter of 1863. 
He subsequently changed this date, and alleged that the 
disease was contracted "while he was being carried from 
place to place as a prisoner, he having been tried by court 
martial in 1862, for desertion, and sentenced to imprison- 
ment until the expiration of his term of enlistment." It 
thus appeared by his ow^n admission that Cuthbert Stone 
had spent most of his time in desertion, or in imprison- 
ment for desertion; and yet a committee of Congress re- 
ported in favor of granting him a pension on account 
of the "long and faithful service and the high character 
of the claimant"! Mr. Cleveland withheld his consent, 
on the ground that "the allowance of this claim would, 
in my opinion, be a travesty upon our whole scheme of 
pensions, and an insult to every decent veteran soldier." 

William Bishop had hired himself as a substitute in 
March, 1865, and had been mustered out in May of that 
year, having spent more than a month of the intervening 
time in hospital with the measles. Congress passed a 
bill, giving him a pension, which Mr. Cleveland vetoed 
with the remark: "This is the military record of this 
soldier, who remained in the army one month and seven- 
teen days, having entered it as a substitute at a time when 
high bounties were paid. Fifteen years after this brilliant 
service and this terrific encounter with the measles, and 
on the 28th day of June, 1880, the claimant discovered that 
his attack of the measles had some relation to his army 
enrollment, and that this disease had 'settled in his eyes, 
also affecting his spinal column.' This claim was rejected 
by the pension bureau, and I have no doubt of the correct- 
ness of its determination." 

Another bill proposed to grant a pension to one 
Charles Glamann, who left the service in 1865 without 
having made any claim of disability, but fifteen years 



194 GROVER CLEVELAND 

later alleged that he had been struck with a brick by a 
comrade with whom he had got into a row, and injured 
in the left arm. Mr. Cleveland concludes his veto in 
this case with the remark: "I believe that if the veterans 
of the war knew all that was going on in the way of grant- 
ing pensions by private bills, they would be more dis- 
gusted than any other class of our citizens." 

Still another was the case of Mary A. Van Etten, 
who was allowed a pension because of the drowning of 
her husband in 1875. To which Mr. Cleveland objects: 
"It is claimed that in an effort to drive across that bay in 
a buggy with his young son the buggy was overturned 
and both were drowned. The application for pension 
was based upon the theory that during his military service 
the deceased soldier contracted rheumatism, which so in- 
terfered with his ability to save himself by swimming 
that his death may be fairly traced to a disability incurred 
in the service. . . . He was mustered out in 1863, and 
though he lived twelve years thereafter, it does not appear 
that he ever applied for a pension; and, though he was 
drowned in 1875, his widow apparently did not connect 
his military service with his death until ten years there- 
after. It seems to me that there is such an entire absence 
of direct and tangible evidence that the death of this 
soldier resulted from an incident of his service that the 
granting of a pension upon such a theory is not justified." 

Of one Wilson he wrote : "Whatever else may be said 
of the claimant's achievements during his short military 
career, it must be conceded that he accumulated a great 
deal of disability." 

One of the vetoes which caused the most violent abuse 
of Mr. Cleveland was that of a bill giving a pension to 
Sallie Ann Bradley, who had been presented as a candi- 
date for governmental support as being the very mother 



CLEVELAND AND THE VETERANS OF THE CIVIL WAR 1 95 

of heroic sacrifice. According to her petition, her hus- 
band and her four sons had been Union soldiers. Two of 
the sons were pictured as slain on the field of battle, a 
third had his arm torn off by a shell, and the fourth lost 
an eye in the gallant defence of his country. Her husband 
was described as a fighting member of a fighting regiment, 
the 24th Ohio, later transferred to the gallant i8th Ohio, 
only to fall, terribly wounded, in "Pap" Thomas's fight 
before Nashville. Maimed, but still heroic, he had 
dragged out his shattered life until 1880, drawing the piti- 
ful pittance of four dollars a month; and then, worn out 
by wounds that would not heal, had passed to the other 
shore, leaving his wife, poor, broken by sorrow and sick- 
ness, and compelled to live on charity as an inmate of the 
County Infirmary, because her surviving sons were too 
crippled to earn enough to sustain her in her declining 
years. 

Upon the face of the facts as stated, Sallie Ann Brad- 
ley certainly merited a liberal pension, as the widow of a 
hero whose death had been due solely to wounds received 
in battle. All she asked was eight dollars a month, and 
Congress had approved her prayer; but the President, 
having taken the trouble to investigate the facts, vetoed 
the bill, and was promptly denounced. The Clinton 
County Democrat of Wilmington, Ohio, on July 29, 1886, 
having investigated the case, sustained the President, giv- 
ing its readers the following summary of the actual facts, 
as gathered from the neighbors of the widow, and from 
an inspection of what remained of her shattered family: 

"The husband's name was T. J. Bradley. He was not 
in the battle of Nashville, and could not, therefore, have 
fallen terribly wounded in 'Pap' Thomas's fight. He 
choked to death on a piece of beef when gorging himself 
while on a drunken spree, and, therefore, did not go to 



196 GROVER CLEVELAND 

camp on the other shore when worn out with wounds and 
old age. So much for the old man. 

"There were four sons who were in the service, viz.: 
Robert, John, Carey, and James. They all came home 
from the war, so that two of them could not have been 
shot dead on the battle field. Two of them, John and 
James, are living, so that they could not have been the 
ones who are said to have been shot dead. Of the others, 
Robert died of yellow fever in Memphis several years 
after the war, while Carey committed suicide when on 
a spree a few years ago at his home in Bentonville, Adams 
County, Ohio. They were not shot on the battle field. 

"Now for the eye and arm story. John is the one 
about whom the anecdote is told that he had his eye shot 
out. . . . He is a shoemaker by trade, and the Demo- 
cratic postmaster of Bentonville, and lost his eye while 
working at his trade from a piece of heel nail striking it 
when repairing a pair of boots. James was shot in the 
arm at Nashville, hut it was not torn off by a shell. Mrs. 
Bradley never was in the County Infirmary, and her boys 
are not unable to support her by reason of disabilities 
produced from wounds received in the army. The Re- 
publican Senate twice rejected the bill to pension Mrs. 
Bradley, one of the bills having been introduced by that 
valiant lover of the soldiers, Alphonso Hart. 

"These are the facts, as can be vouched for by hun- 
dreds of persons in Adams County. If Mrs. Bradley 
is entitled to a pension because she is poor and in need, 
there are thousands and tens of thousands of similar cases 
in the United States, equally needy, who should be pen- 
sioned. If her case is put upon that ground, she is no 
better than all the other poor and needy widows in the 
country, and if one of them is to be pensioned, there 
should be a bill passed to put them all on the list. But 



CLEVELAND AND THE VETERANS OF THE CIVIL WAR 1 97 

it is not from any love of Sallie Ann Bradley that all 
this bluster is being made, nor because she is any more 
worthy of a pension, but because it is hoped that by mis- 
stating the facts a little political capital may be made." 

House Bill No. 155 bestowed a pension on a man who 
never left the state in which he enlisted, and deserted 
while there. He was finally discharged on a surgeon's 
certificate for disability, incurred by a fall from his own 
wagon, the certificate bearing the endorsement: "Never 
did a day's duty — is utterly worthless and unfit for the 
veteran reserve corps." This, too, the President vetoed, 
supplying the public with a full bill of particulars, drawn 
with his unfailing frankness. 

In another case, Mr. Cleveland declared that the "in- 
jury complained of existed prior to . . . enlistment," add- 
ing the scornful comment: "The proposed beneficiary, 
after all these disabilities had occurred, passed an ex- 
amination as to his physical fitness for re-enlistment, and 
actually did enlist, and served till finally mustered out at 
the close of the war." 

Another bill he indignantly rejected because the name 
of the soldier in question "is not borne upon any of the 
rolls of the regiment he alleges he was on his way to join," 
when injured. "If the wounds were received as de- 
scribed," another veto announced, "there is certainly no 
necessary connection between them and death fourteen 
years afterwards from neuralgia of the heart." In re- 
fusing a grant to a widow, he wrote of the departed hus- 
band : "He never did a day's service," and was "drowned 
in a canal six miles from his home" after having de- 
serted from the army. "Those who prosecute claims . . . 
have grown very bold when cases of this description are 
presented for consideration." "It is stated that about five 
years ago," another message declared, "while the claimant 



198 GROVER CLEVELAND 

was gathering dandelions ... his leg broke . . . [but] 
it is not evident that the fracture had anything to do with 
. . . military service." And he summed up both his point 
of view and his exasperation in the cutting phrase: "We 
are dealing with pensions, and not with gratuities." 

All these bills and many similar ones President 
Cleveland vetoed, thus giving proof of heartless indiffer- 
ence to claims on the public treasury of men bearing a 
strange variety of singularly unheroic and unmilitary 
wounds, or of women demanding compensation for the 
unpatriotic deaths of husbands, little cherished dur- 
ing life. 

Month after month, the dreary process went on, the 
President striving, amid a myriad of imperious calls 
upon his time, to do justice to the men who deserved well 
of the state, by refusing to allow their money to be given 
to those who merited only contempt. But even his un- 
usual capacity for work was insufficient for the task. 
"There have lately been presented to me on the same 
day," he once declared, ". . . nearly 240 special bills 
granting and increasing pensions, and restoring to the pen- 
sion list the names of parties which for cause have been 
dropped." And upon another occasion he indignantly 
wrote: "During the present session of Congress, 493 spe- 
cial pension bills have been submitted to me, and I am 
advised that 1 1 1 more have received the favorable action 
of both houses of Congress and will be presented within 
a day or two, making over 600 of these bills which have 
been passed up to this time during the present session, 
nearly three times the number passed at any entire session 
since the year 1861. . . . I have now more than 130 of 
these bills before me awaiting executive action. It will 
be impossible to bestow upon them the examination they 



CLEVELAND AND THE VETERANS OF THE CIVIL WAR 1 99 

deserve, and many will probably become operative which 
should be rejected." 

This was, of course, true. It was physically impos- 
sible for him to study each bill presented with the care 
necessary for a sound judgment upon its merits, but he 
did so study and veto 108 between March 10 and August 
17, 1886, and in the case of each prepared, with his own 
hand, a set of reasons for its rejection. These Mss. lie 
before me as I write, a monument to the conscientious 
care with which Grover Cleveland guarded the interests 
of the men who saved the Union. 

In January, 1887, Congress passed a pension bill 
which threatened worse results even than those of the 
Arrears Act of 1879. Under the latter it was still neces- 
sary for a claimant to show that his present disabilities 
were directly due to service in the army. Under the pro- 
posed Dependent Pension Bill any man who had served 
ninety days in the army during any war need only to 
claim that he could not earn his living, and the Gov- 
ernment would give him from six to twelve dollars a 
month. This bill received the votes of an overwhelming 
majority in the Senate and the House, and an energetic 
and influential section of the Grand Army of the Re- 
public strongly urged the President to approve it. 

Instead, he sent to Congress, on February nth, a veto 
message denouncing the measure as placing a premium 
upon fraud, by tempting honest men to quit work and 
seek to live by public charity. He declared himself un- 
willing to believe that the vast army of Union soldiers 
who, "having been disabled by the casualties of war, 
justly regard the present pension roll on which appear 
their names as a roll of honor, desire ... to be con- 
founded with those who through such a bill as this are 
willing to be objects of simple charity." He declared that 



200 GROVER CLEVELAND 

"the race after the pensions offered by this bill would not 
only stimulate weakness and pretended incapacity for 
labor, but would be a further premium on mendacity 
and dishonesty." 

The next day Horace White wrote: 

My dear Mr. Cleveland: 

I once knew a clergyman who, on being asked what 
his forte was, replied that he was 'happy at funerals.' I 
think that you are happy at vetoes, and of all your vetoes 
that I have seen that of the Pauper Pension Bill is the 
happiest and weightiest. 

Charles Francis Adams later commended this veto in 
the picturesque paragraph : 

"We had seen every dead-beat, and malingerer, every 
bummer, bounty-jumper, and suspected deserter . . . 
rush to the front as the greedy claimant of public bounty. 
If there was any man whose army record had been other- 
wise than creditable ... we soon heard of him as the 
claimant of a back pension ... or as being in the regu- 
lar receipt of his monthly stipend. . . . We therefore 
felt a keen sense of relief when, in February, 1887, Presi- 
dent Cleveland sent in his veto of the Dependent Pension 
Bill, which put a premium on self-abasement and 
perjury." 

But while it is true that President Cleveland used the 
veto to a greater extent than any other President, and 
while it is true that but one pension bill had been vetoed 
before his administration, it is also true that more pen- 
sion bills became laws by his signature than by that of 
any other President up to that time. During the years 
1886 and 1887 he approved 863 private pension acts, 



CLEVELAND AND THE VETERANS OF THE CIVIL WAR 20I 

being 'j'j more than Presidents Grant and Hayes approved 
in twelve years, and 127 more than Presidents Garfield 
and Arthur approved in four years. In addition he ap- 
proved an act which increased to twelve dollars a month 
the pensions of some 80,000 widows, minor, and depend- 
ent relatives, of Union soldiers, and an act which in- 
creased the pensions of 10,030 crippled and maimed 
Union soldiers. It was also with his approval that more 
than 33,000 Mexican war veterans or their widows were 
placed upon the lists. 

The net gain to the pension rolls is thus graphically 
summed up in a memorandum found among Mr. Cleve- 
land's papers: 

''On July I, 1883, there were upon the pension rolls 
303,658 pensioners of all classes. 

"On July I, 1885, there were . . . 345,125 ... a net 
gain during the last two years of Republican rule . . . 
of 41,467 pensioners. 

"On the first day of July, 1887, . . . there were upon 
the pension rolls 402,000 pensioners ... of all classes. 

"Here is a net gain to the rolls in two years under 
Democratic rule of 56,875, as against a net gain of 41,467 
pensioners during the last two years of Republican rule, 
or 15,408 to the advantage of the Democratic adminis- 
tration and this, too, in the face of the fact that the clerical 
force of the Bureau of Pensions has been reduced 124 
within the past two years, and that the death rate among 
the old soldiers is rapidly increasing." 

Mr. Cleveland himself was justly proud of his record 
in regard to veterans, and confident that the soldiers them- 
selves would appreciate the meaning of his vetoes if given 
a chance to read them. "He told me," wrote Richard 
Watson Gilder, in one of those curious little pencil memo- 



202 GROVER CLEVELAND 

randa which he kept of his conversations with the Presi- 
dent, that "he would want no better campaign document 
than a pamphlet containing all his pension vetoes placed 
in every G. A. R. post." 

But Mr. Cleveland's record was not placed in G. A. R. 
posts. Instead, attention was diverted from the facts by- 
spectacular accusations. The papers teemed with abuse. 
He was the enemy of the veteran, the foe to the cause 
that triumphed, the shirker who had avoided his duty 
during the war that saved the nation. 

In the meantime Mr. Cleveland exposed himself to 
attack from another angle, and in so doing proved 
again his broad-mindedness and his courage. On April 
30, 1887, Adjutant-General Drum wrote to Secretary 
Endicott: 

Sir: 

I have the honor to state that there are now in this 
office, stored in one of the attic rooms of the building, a 
number of Union flags captured in action, but recovered 
on the fall of the Confederacy and forwarded to the War 
Department for safekeeping, together with a number of 
Confederate flags which the fortunes of war placed in our 
hands during the late Civil War. 

While in the past favorable action has been taken on 
applications properly supported for the return of Union 
flags to organizations representing survivors of the mili- 
tary regiments in the service of the Government, I beg 
to submit that it would be a graceful act to anticipate 
future requests of this nature, and venture to suggest the 
propriety of returning all the flags (Union and Con- 
federate) to the authorities of the respective states in 
which the regiments which bore these colors were 



CLEVELAND AND THE VETERANS OF THE CIVIL WAR 203 

organized, for such final disposition as they may de- 
termine. . . . 

Very truly yours, 

R. C. Drum, 
Adjutant-General. 

Anxious always to restore harmony between the North 
and the South, and feeling that this suggestion offered a 
chance to show his spirit of conciliation, the President 
gave his verbal assent, without taking the precaution to 
examine the law as to his powers in the matter. To his 
mind it was a course so manifestly wise and proper as to 
be beyond question. On May 26, 1887, therefore. Secre- 
tary Endicott returned the proposition to the Adjutant- 
General, endorsed, "The within recommendation ap- 
proved by the President." 

There seemed no reason to suppose that there would 
be much opposition. General Drum, who had made the 
proposal, was a Republican and a member of the Grand 
Army of the Republic. The idea was clearly in line with 
the developments of recent years. It was true that in 
1872 the Massachusetts Legislature had formally de- 
nounced Senator Sumner for having offered in the United 
States Senate a resolution providing "that the names of 
battles with fellow citizens shall not be continued in the 
Army Register, or placed on the regimental colors of the 
United States." But it was also true that fourteen months 
later that same legislature had rescinded the censure, thus 
acknowledging its error, and illustrating the trend of the 
times, which was toward a policy of conciliation and 
friendship with the South. 

Since that time, the number of those whose aim it 
was to chisel deeper the record of civil strife had pre- 
sumably grown steadily smaller and the custom of sum- 



204 GROVER CLEVELAND 

moning the veteran organizations of North and South to 
joint celebrations upon former battle fields had become 
encouragingly common. At it chanced, less than a month 
after sanctioning the return of the flags, President Cleve- 
land received an invitation to just such a joint celebration, 
to be held at Gettysburg, and his answer shows the spirit 
in which he had met General Drum's suggestion: 

Executive Mansion, Washington. 

June 24, 1887, 
Mr. John W. Frazier, 
Secretary, &c. 

My dear Sir: 

I have received your invitation to attend as a guest 
of the Philadelphia Brigade, a reunion of Ex-Confed- 
erate soldiers of Pickett's Division who survived their 
terrible charge at Gettysburg, and those of the Union 
Army still living, by whom it was heroically resisted. 

The fraternal meeting of these soldiers, upon the 
battle field where twenty-four years ago in deadly fray 
they fiercely sought each other's lives, where they saw 
their comrades fall and where all their thoughts were of 
vengeance and destruction, will illustrate the generous 
impulse of brave men and their honest desire for peace 
and reconciliation. 

The friendly assault there to be made will be resistless 
because inspired by American chivalry; and its result will 
be glorious because conquered hearts will be its trophies 
of success. Thereafter this battle field will be conse- 
crated by a victory, which shall presage the end of the 
bitterness of strife, the exposure of the insincerity which 
conceals hatred by professions of kindness, the condemna- 
tion of frenzied appeals to passion for unworthy purposes, 



CLEVELAND AND THE VETERANS OF THE CIVIL WAR 205 

and the beating down of all that stands in the way of the 
destiny of our united Country. 

While those who fought and who have so much to 
forgive, lead in the pleasant ways of peace, how wicked 
appear the traffic in sectional hate, and the betrayal of 
patriotic sentiment. 

It surely cannot be wrong to desire the settled quiet 
which lights for our entire Country the path to pros- 
perity and greatness; nor need the lessons of the war be 
forgotten and its results jeopardized, in the wish for that 
genuine fraternity which insures national pride and 
glory. 

I should be very glad to accept your invitation and 
be with you at this interesting reunion; but other arrange- 
ments already made, and my official duties here, will pre- 
vent my doing so. 

Hoping that the occasion will be as successful and 
useful as its promoters can desire, I am. 
Yours very truly, 

Grover Cleveland. 

Conscious of his own desire to see the ''wounds that 
once were" healed by a new sense of brotherhood between 
the North and the South, the Unionist and the Confed- 
erate, he was clearly entitled to count upon a simliar 
feeling throughout the nation, and as clearly under obli- 
gation to do what he could to foster it. The suggestion 
of General Drum had appeared a case in point, and his 
approval had been hearty and generous. But President 
Cleveland's ceaseless activity for civil service reform, and 
for the purification of the pension rolls, had made for 
him and for his administration a body of enemies who 
eagerly seized upon the incident of the flags as a rally- 
ing cry. His act was denounced as a recognition of the 



206 GROVER CLEVELAND 

"Lost Cause." Letters of protest and resolutions of de- 
nunciation poured in. "For this," said one of the South- 
ern papers, "the cry of treason rang out upon the air, and 
the noble impulses of a loyal and patriotic heart have been 
denounced by those who would perpetuate sectional 
prejudices and the passions of war to the detriment of 
the common good." 

It was, unfortunately, true. The cry of rage was 
taken up by leaders whose vision was too narrow and 
whose prejudices were too dominant to enable them to 
understand such an action. Governor Foraker of Ohio 
announced, "No rebel flags will be surrendered while I 
am Governor," and the friends of a belated war spirit 
applauded ,him to the echo. General Sherman, who 
should have realized that the war was over, scornfully 
declared that Drum, as a noncombatant who had never 
captured a standard, could not be expected to understand 
what it means to a veteran: "He did not think of the 
blood and torture of battle; nor can Endicott, the Secre- 
tary of War, or Mr. Cleveland." 

Mr. Cleveland was not, it is true, thinking of "blood 
and torture," he was thinking of a reunited nation; but 
he now realized that, in his eagerness, he had gone beyond 
the limits of his constitutional powers. Technically, the 
captured rebel flags were the property of the nation, not 
to be alienated without the consent of Congress. 

Among Mr. Cleveland's private papers is the follow- 
ing memorandum, written in his own hand, evidently a 
press notice: 

"The right of the Department to make the return be- 
ing questioned by the President, such right was distinctly 
asserted and precedents alleged, and therefore his verbal 
assent was given to the proposed action. The matter was 
dismissed from his mind until comment thereupon within 



CLEVELAND AND THE VETERANS OF THE CIVIL WAR 207 

the last day or two brought it again to his attention, when 
upon examining the law and considering the subject more 
carefully he satisfied himself that no disposition of these 
flags could be made without Congressional action, where- 
upon he directed a suspension of operations by the letter 
above published." 

That letter reads as follows : 

Executive Mansion, Washington. 

June IS, 1887. 
To 
The Secretary of War: 

I have today considered, with more care than when 
the subject was orally presented to me, the action of your 
Department directing letters to be addressed to the Gov- 
ernors of all the States, offering to return, if desired, to 
the loyal States the Union flags captured in the War of 
the Rebellion by the Confederate forces and afterwards 
recovered by Government troops, and to the Confederate 
States the flags captured by the Union forces, all of which 
for many years have been packed in boxes and stored in 
the cellar and attic of the War Department. 

I am of the opinion that the return of these flags in 
the manner thus contemplated is not authorized by exist- 
ing law nor justified as an Executive act. 

I request, therefore, that no further steps be taken in 
the matter, except to examine and inventory these flags 
and adopt proper measures for their preservation. Any 
directions as to the final disposition of them should 
originate with Congress. 

Yours truly, 

Grover Cleveland. 

This was, of course, the proper step under the cir- 
cumstances. His impulse had been right, but his action 



208 GROVER CLEVELAND 

had been in excess of the constitutional limits of his 
power. Unintentionally, he had encroached upon the 
domain of the legislative branch of the Government, and 
he therefore publicly acknowledged his error. The spirit 
of his action, and the spirit of his recantation, should 
have disarmed criticism. 

But his bitter enemies were in no frame of mind to 
appreciate the one, or to forego the opportunity of mak- 
ing capital out of the other. Again the press and the plat- 
form teemed with violent, unreasoning abuse. "May 
God palsy the hand that wrote the order! May God 
palsy the tongue that dictated it!" screamed General Fair- 
child, Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, 
in a meeting in Association Hall in Harlem. And less 
conspicuous veterans, fired by his unholy spirit, poured 
in upon the President a volley of insulting letters, call- 
ing him "viper," "traitor," "contemptible politician," 
"unworthy to breathe the air of heaven," "a skulker," "a 
hater of Union soldiers," "the oppressor of the widow and 
the fatherless." 

In comment upon this senseless abuse, the Nation, on 
June 23, 1887, declared, in language more just than 
discreet: 

"The awful cursing in which Gen. Fairchild indulged 
on hearing the news at the meeting of a Grand Army post 
last week in this city, gives a foretaste of the use which 
will be made of the order, in spite of its having been 
revoked. He shouted for God Almighty to help him in 
this matter by killing the President with two strokes of 
paralysis, one in the hand and the second in the brain, 
as if God Almighty had not done enough in this line by 
permitting the slaughter of 300,000 young men in the four 
years between 1861 and 1865. We suggest now that if 
there has to be any further loss of life in this quarrel, 



CLEVELAND AND THE VETERANS OF THE CIVIL WAR 209 

Gen. Fairchild should do his own killing. If he or any- 
other veteran thinks the President ought to die for re- 
storing the captured flags, he must not blasphemously call 
on God to slay him, but step up like a man and assassi- 
nate him himself. If anything can justify the President's 
course, however, it would be talk like this." 

Governor Foraker insultingly announced that, with 
these cries ringing in his ears, the President "sneaked 
like a whipped spaniel." But the President did not 
"sneak"; he only admitted — reluctantly and a little sadly 
— that it was still too soon for open generosity to the con- 
quered South. 

It is only just to say of the flag incident, as Mr. Cleve- 
land himself said of the question of pension vetoes, that 
had the Grand Army posts been fully aware of the facts, 
they would have had little sympathy with these bitter 
denunciations of their President. That great, patriotic 
organization had been in existence for twenty-two years. 
It embraced the best class of veterans of the Civil War, 
men of every political faith, every religious sect, every 
calling. It commanded universal respect, not alone in 
the North, but in the South as well. Founded upon a 
patriotic impulse, its general aim was the promotion of 
brotherhod among the brave. It distinctly discarded 
partisan politics, and taught that the broadest independ- 
ence of the citizen is the best training for the loyal 
soldier. But Grand Army posts had been deliberately 
and maliciously fed upon falsehood. Demagogues within 
and demagogues without the order had steadily misled 
their veteran brothers regarding the attitude and the 
methods of Mr. Cleveland, thus turning the organization 
into the forbidden path of party politics. "Little by 
little, step by step," commented the Philadelphia Times 
of July 9, 1887, "such political brawlers as Fairchild and 



2IO GROVER CLEVELAND 

Tuttle crawled into responsible leadership," and they so 
poisoned the minds of many worthy veterans that the 
very sound of the President's name threw them into a 
fury of resentment. 

The annual encampment of the Grand Army of the 
Republic was an event of national importance, worthy 
of the sacrifice of the nation's time which the presence of 
a chief executive always involves. Before the incident 
of the flags had occurred, the President had tentatively 
accepted an invitation to visit the Grand Army at its next 
encampment, to be held in St. Louis in the month of 
September. The committee had been hearty and gen- 
erous in extending the invitation, and the President had 
accepted upon the assumption that they expressed the 
desires of the organization. No sooner did it become 
publicly known, however, that Mr. Cleveland was to be 
present, than a howl of rage arose from certain mem- 
bers who believed, or pretended to believe, that the Presi- 
dent was the enemy of the veteran. Some announced, 
with explanations more eloquent than seemly, that they 
would not go to the reunion if Grover Cleveland was to 
be there; others proclaimed their intention to see that 
the President was properly insulted if he ventured to 
come, while the more lawless threatened personal 
violence. 

At first the reason, or pretext, for such statements was 
his pension record, and later the afifair of the flags gave 
new ammunition, which his enemies fired recklessly. 
Mitchell Post No. 45 drew up resolutions declaring that, 
by his order to return the Confederate flags, the President 
had forfeited the esteem of every faithful Union soldier 
and given unpardonable offense to the loyal patriotic peo- 
ple of the country; that by this act he had given evidence, 
either of his sympathy with the rebellion, or of his utter 



CLEVELAND AND THE VETERANS OF THE CIVIL WAR 211 

inability to appreciate the motives which induced patriots 
to enlist for the maintenance of the Union; that by this 
act he had taken away from the rising generation one in- 
centive to loyalty and patriotism, proving thereby that 
treason is not to be regarded as dishonorable, and that, 
though men may plot the overthrow of the Government, 
they are, after all is over, to be held in as high repute as 
patriots; "that Catiline may sit side by side with Cicero; 
that Arnold may rear as proud a crest as Washington, 
and that Davis may be canonized in the affections of the 
people as well as the martyr, Lincoln. . . . Resolved, 
that in view of the expected presence of President Cleve- 
land during the National Encampment of the G. A. R. 
at St. Louis, the chief authorities of our Order be re- 
quested to remove the Encampment in September next 
from St. Louis to some other city. . . ." 

On June 24th, a committee appointed by the "Sam 
Rice Post" sent him a set of fiery resolutions. "The un- 
dersigned were appointed a committee," declared the 
accompanying letter, "to transmit to you the enclosed 
resolutions of the post, with an appropriate letter voicing, 
as fully as words may be made to do so, the feeling of 
the veterans who participated in the capture of the em- 
blems of treason you so recently sought to place in posi- 
tions of honor. 

"We were instructed by unanimous vote to write these 
resolutions in burning letters of red on blood red paper, 
to enclose them in a blood red envelope and tie with 
crimson stained ribbon; thus emphasizing to you our 
heartfelt feelings symbolizing the burning loyalty which 
resents the sacrilege, and the field of blood from which 
these flags were snatched in the tumult of war. In the 
crimson hued band which binds this package we desire 
you to see the stream of blood ebbing from the heart of a 



212 GROVER CLEVELAND 

loyal soldier as he leaped upon the rebel line, grasped 
the rebel flag, furled and passed it to his comrades as he 
fell lifeless on the field, pierced by a traitor's bayonet or 
ball, thus with this blood red band binding together all 
loyal hearts and hands and glistening and brightening as 
year after year sheds its historic light on the pages of 
time. But you have undertaken to undo all this by your 
mad act, conceived no doubt in a spirit of pique against 
the Grand Army of the Republic. You had no thought 
of, at least no regard for, the patriotic sentiment that 
w^arms the hearts of loyal soldiers. 

"We w^ould excuse you if this w^ere simply your own 
private act, for we know full well that a man who per- 
formed his duty to his country in its time of peril by a 
substitute cannot enter into the true meaning of such a 
monstrous act as yours ... as you could . . . had you 
heard with us the oft repeated 'Rebel Yell' that meant 
death or wounds and groans and shattered limbs; or had 
you met disease and seeds of consuming death on the field, 
march, and bivouac, or been placed face to face with the 
lipless mouth of gaunt relentless famine as it mocked at 
want and stalked unrebuked in southern prison pens with 
these flags floating over them in haughty defiance of the 
nation's power and the common rules of civilized war- 
fare; or had you in search of freedom, aye, of bread, been 
hunted through southern swamps and woodlands by sav- 
age bloodhounds and listened to their horrid baying as 
they drew nearer and nearer on your track, set on by men 
who carried these same flags. . . . 

"We desire that you may realize with us that the 
return of these flags, which do not represent property so 
much as principle, is deadly and destructive to every 
patriotic impulse. These flags can now have no other 
meaning than a representation of treason. There ought 



CLEVELAND AND THE VETERANS OF THE CIVIL WAR 213 

to be in this land to-day no one who would own them. 
Of value they have none, save as dishonored, hidden, dis- 
owned, they are visible warnings for the future: but 
placed as you propose, in the hands of those who carried 
them in war, who have been slowly learning to feel the 
shame of their treason, to be held in reverence and as 
sacred relics as of a just cause and their reception to be 
made as they say 'a season of rejoicing,' is to insult the 
Union dead, the loyal living, to give approval to treason 
and in fact to say to them, you can still adore treason, 
worship the heroes and relics of secession, declare your 
cause just and teach your children to hold in higher re- 
gard the 'stars and bars' of disunion than the 'stars and 
stripes' of the Union, and still fulfill the duty of a loyal 
citizen. . . . 

"No, Mr. President, loyalty is not dead, it slumbereth 
not, nor does it sleep on its posts, and its watch fires are 
brightly burning. 'The penalty of treason is death.' It 
is and shall be made odious. The great Grand Army of 
the Republic have sworn it." 

There was much m.ore, equally violent, equally fool- 
ish, in the letter; but the "Resolutions," actually type- 
written on blood-red paper, enclosed in a blood-red 
envelope and tied with a crimson-stained ribbon, though, 
for obvious reasons, not written in burning letters of red, 
represent the Mt. Everest of insult: 

''Be It Resolved by Sam Rice Post G. A. R. Depart- 
ment of Iowa: That we do hereby protest against the 
surrender of the rebel flags to the men who bore them 
in their mad attempt to destroy the country, either by 
the president of the United States or by Congress. 

"That the recent attempt to do so by the unauthorized 
act of the president was but an attempt to accomplish 



214 GROVER CLEVELAND 

through him what they failed to do on the field of bat- 
tle [re-capture the flags]. . . . 

"That by this act of truculency and subserviency to 
treason Grover Cleveland has forfeited all claim to re- 
spect from those who fought to capture these emblems 
of treason, and from all who respect the valor and sacri- 
fice of the Union soldiers, and that he has shown himself 
by this act more plainly, if possible, than before, that he 
is not only no friend to the Union soldier, but that what 
love and sympathy his nature is capable of goes out to the 
soldiers of the other side, and that in his readiness to 
serve them and solidify the Southern feeling, he has even 
violated his oath of office, and shown himself wholly 
unworthy of the trust reposed in him as chief magistrate 
of the Nation. . . . 

"That in view of this bold attempt of a leader of a 
great party to break down all barriers and destroy all dis- 
tinctions between loyalty and treason, patriotism and dis- 
union, between government and anarchy, we recognize 
with ten-fold more force than ever the need of keeping 
alive the posts of the Grand Army of the Republic in 
which none can enter on whom the stain of treason rests, 
as schools of loyalty, and to sow the seeds of true pa- 
triotism. . . . 

"That we heartily approve the action of our Depart- 
ment Commander in entering his early protest against 
the great vetoer's presence at the National Encampment 
as an invited guest, and in his protest at this resurrec- 
tion of rebel trophies, and also the protest from Iowa's 
loyal Governor in this behalf, as formerly, when the old 
flag was assailed, Iowa is at the front." 

In August, at a reunion of the Army of West Vir- 
ginia, at Wheeling, a huge banner of the President was 
suspended across the street down which the parade was 



CLEVELAND AND THE VETERANS OF THE CIVIL WAR 215 

to pass. It was inscribed, ''God bless our President, 
Commander-in-Chief of our Army and Navy." When 
the head of the first division, composed of Pennsylvania 
veterans, reached the picture, Post No. 41, vs^hich led the 
advance, went squarely under the flag. The succeeding 
posts, however, crowded into the gutter to avoid passing 
under the banner, and either drooped their colors or 
trailed them along the ground as they passed. As or- 
ganization after organization went by in this manner, 
the excitement among the vast throng of spectators 
became intense, and cheers and hisses were alternately 
given as the banner was passed. During a halt caused by 
the great length of the column the action of some of the 
veterans became more marked, and curses and epithets 
were hurled at the picture. Meanwhile news of what 
was going on was spread far and wide, and soon the 
street was blocked with an excited mass. Democratic 
members of the G. A. R. began to tear of^f their badges 
and leave the ranks, while many officers of the marching 
posts hurried to and fro, urging their men over to the 
side of the street and commanding that the flags be 
trailed. 

The excitement reached its height when an encamp- 
ment of the Union Veterans' Legion of Pittsburgh 
reached the spot. The crowd had filled all the breadth 
of the street, leaving but a narrow lane along one curb 
for the column. The Legion, two hundred and fifty 
strong, struck a bee-line down the center of the street, the 
officers in front, clearing the way, and as they passed 
under the Cleveland banner with upright flag-stafifs many 
of their members took off their hats and saluted. Imme- 
diately pandemonium was let loose, and while most of 
the G. A. R. men and their friends filled the air with 
hisses and groans, the Democrats cheered until they were 



2l6 GROVER CLEVELAND 

hoarse, while threats of violence were freely inter- 
changed. However, the column passed on, and all danger 
was over, though during the remainder of the day the 
excitement was very great, and threats to tear down the 
flag were heard on all sides. 

But the G. A. R. were not all hostile to the President. 
One veteran from the West, more friendly than literate, 
wrote : 

My dear Sir: 

... I served four years and six months in the re- 
bellion. . . . My weight is 240. My Collor is 18 inches 
and in all this Flesh of mine I never seen such utter 
foolishness as some of the G. A. R. is making over the 
encampment: and to have one of our leeding statesmen 
Ex Gov Fairchild a man we all loved as a comrad to tak 
the stand he has take I must say I am uterly astoned of 
him and the Boodle Comrades he has with him . . . 
Pardon my boldness in writing and I would not do it 
ownly to show you that the G. A. R. is not all trying to 
make fools of the selves. 

Despite such encouragement, however, it was evi- 
dent to the President and his friends that the presidential 
office would certainly suffer insult, if indeed the Presi- 
dent himself were not subjected to personal violence, if 
the intended visit to St. Louis were made. It was not 
easy, however, to recall the acceptance without giving 
countenance to the accusation, certain to be made, that 
Mr. Cleveland was afraid to go. The correspondence 
among his friends upon this delicate point is full of solici- 
tude. "I want him to avoid having them say afterwards 
that he was frightened," wrote Secretary Whitney to 
Colonel Lamont, adding: "That's what the World and 



CLEVELAND AND THE VETERANS OF THE CIVIL WAR 217 

the rest of that ilk will say unless between now and Mon- 
day morning there should come a general demand of 
public sentiment against it. I think it will come and 
the President can then peacefully yield to it if he thinks 
it judicious not to go. ... I write this because I know 
the President begins to feel it his duty to the country to 
keep himself safe. It is his duty . . . but . . . until 
there is apparent a great deal of public demand against it, 
not in this little teapot of Washington, but from outside, 
he should adhere to his decision. Give out the fact that 
he is urged not to go, etc." And in a postscript he added, 
"Let the solicitude for his personal safety grow. . . . 
Don't check it, for Heaven's sake." From the point of 
view of "good politics," this was doubtless the wise 
method of handling the situation; but Mr. Cleveland's 
ideas were different. As soon as he was convinced that 
the visit would imperil the dignity of his great office, he 
sent Mayor Francis an open letter containing a straight- 
forward statement of the facts, and flatly declaring his 
determination to remain at Washington, not in order to 
avoid personal danger, but that the office of Chief Execu- 
tive might not be publicly insulted. 

Passions aroused by civil war die hard, and almost 
two decades passed before a Republican President, Theo- 
dore Roosevelt, acting in harmony with a Republican 
Congress, realized Grover Cleveland's aim by restoring 
the Confederate flags. In February, 1905, a bill to that 
efifect, and substantially identical with the one for which 
Mr. Cleveland had been so violently attacked, passed both 
houses unanimously, and without the formality of the 
yeas and nays. 



CHAPTER IX 

CLEVELAND AND THE WARDS OF THE NATION, THE 
AMERICAN INDIANS 

"The conscience of the people demands that the Indians 
he fairly and honestly treated as wards of the Government." 

— Grover Cleveland. 

WHEN Grover Cleveland became President, the 
status of the North American Indian v^as chaotic 
indeed. A few Indians had from time to time been ad- 
mitted to citizenship, but as a whole the Indian was a 
man without law, a wild thing whose relationship to the 
soil which nourished him was like that of the bear, the 
wolf, or the coyote. The laws dealt with "the pack," not 
with the individual, and the rights of "the pack" were 
little regarded, even those which rested upon Indian 
treaties. From the beginning of the American Federal 
Union to the year 1871, when such formalities were 
abandoned, almost four hundred Indian treaties had been 
made; but they had seldom, if ever, been allowed to inter- 
fere with the plans of the white men. 

The Supreme Court of the United States had fre- 
quently declared that an Indian title "was not inconsistent 
with the fee simple, the absolute ownership, being in 
other persons." Upon that theory the white man had 
seized the continent, and upon that theory he had ad- 
ministered it, despite frequent appeals from successive 
Presidents for justice to the red man. In his seventh 
annual address, Washington had called the attention of 

Congress to the fact that "to enforce upon the Indians 

218 



CLEVELAND AND THE WARDS OF THE NATION 219 

the observance of justice, it is indispensable that there 
shall be competent means of rendering justice to them"; 
and most, if not all, of his successors had made similar 
pleas. With equal regularity successive Congresses had 
failed to respond, the few instances in vs^hich either house 
proposed such law^s proving abortive by virtue of a re- 
fusal of the other house to concur. 

In theory, the tribe was sovereign within certain 
areas; in fact, membership in a tribe meant only such 
security as increasing tribal weakness, savagery fighting 
civilization, could guarantee, a quantity slowly but cer- 
tainly tending from the first toward the absolute zero. 
This process, as inevitable as fate itself when backward 
races with decadent tribal institutions occupy land needed 
for expanding civilization, implies little more malicious 
wickedness than any other natural application of the law 
of the survival of the fittest. Did not this law operate, 
primitive races would be left in non-productive enjoy- 
ment of lands capable of supporting fifty times their 
populations; and all that can be hoped, even by the most 
idealistic friends of primitive peoples, is that the in- 
evitable crowding-out process shall be conducted with as 
much consideration as just laws and generous administra- 
tions can afford. 

By 1830, this crowding-out process, for lands east of 
the Mississippi River, had reached its inevitable result, 
and with solemn and not intentionally misleading prom- 
ises that the new lands beyond the Father of Waters 
should be theirs and their tribes' forever, and without 
a hint that compulsion was contemplated by the enacting 
Congress, arrangements had been made to remove the 
Indians into the great, unorganized west. The argu- 
ment was made to them that, while remaining in their 
old homes, they were under the control of the states in 



220 GROVER CLEVELAND 

which those homes lay, and therefore not within reach 
of the kindly friendship of the National Government. 
Thus tribe after tribe was persuaded to exchange its lands 
in the east for lands in the west, where the "Great Father" 
would see that their rights were protected. Established 
in their new homes, the Indians had been, for a time, 
allowed to enjoy the sense of independent sovereignty; and 
some, notably the Cherokees, Choctaws, Creeks, Chick- 
asaws, and Seminoles, for whom the beautiful Indian 
Territory was set aside, had developed some capacity 
for self-government and became known as the Five Civil- 
ized Tribes. For years before Mr. Cleveland's appear- 
ance in Federal afifairs, however, the conception of a 
savage tribe as a separate nation had been slowly giving 
place to the idea that the Indians were definitely under 
the control of the United States; and on the very day 
before his inauguration a Federal statute began to oper- 
ate, which asserted full jurisdiction over Indians upon 
reservations, thus justifying in a measure the Indian's 
definition of Heaven as "the place where white men lie 
no more." 

In his inaugural address President Cleveland clearly 
stated his views regarding the use to be made of that 
full jurisdiction. "The conscience of the people," he 
declared, "demands that the Indians . . . shall be fairly 
and honestly treated, as wards of the Government." Such 
an opinion from such an executive could only be inter- 
preted as meaning that the President was determined to 
secure for the Indian the rights to which he was entitled 
under treaty stipulations. 

Among such rights was that of occupying reservations 
free from the presence of white invaders. That this 
would not be easily obtained for them Mr. Cleveland 
knew. The question had always been a complicated 



CLEVELAND AND THE WARDS OF THE NATION 221 

one, and it had been recently rendered still more difficult 
by an act of President Arthur who, five days before sur- 
rendering the executive office, had issued an order that 
on the first of the following May the Winnebago and 
Crow Creek lands should be opened for settlement. 
Thus were those Indians robbed of 500,000 acres granted 
to them by treaty with the United States. 

Without waiting for the designated day to arrive, a 
rush for the new lands had begun. By March 5, 1885, 
it was said that two thousand persons were already mak- 
ing their homes in the to-be-opened reservations, that 
one quarter of the claims had been taken, and that houses 
were going up by the hundreds. Other and more prudent 
settlers waited on the border-land. The Payne Colony 
rendezvoused at Arkansas City, preparing to move at 
the appointed time. Of its 10,000 members, twenty-five 
hundred expected to be ready with arms and provisions 
to descend upon the promised land by May first. Another 
strong organization waited at Cofifeyville; still another 
at Kansas City. 

The Indian agent at Crow Creek, Major Gassman, 
sent his Indian police on the rounds to warn such settlers 
as had already arrived that, as the reservation was not 
yet open for settlement, all persons found on the lands 
were trespassers, legally bound to withdraw and remove 
their property. The highest excitement immediately 
prevailed, the whites declaring that if the Indians mo- 
lested their property they would defend it. Sixteen 
companies of cavalry and two of infantry, under the 
command of General Hatch, were next stationed on the 
border of the territory, with orders to prevent the entry 
of all not legally entitled to admission. They were in- 
structed not to let the "boomers" in under any circum- 



222 GROVER CLEVELAND 

Stances, and to use force, if necessary, to carry out their 
orders. 

The new President saw his duty clearly. He had 
taken an oath which required him to see justice done, 
without fear or favor, to white men, black men, red, 
brown, and yellow. The opening of these reservations 
to white settlers appeared to him the very essence of in- 
justice, in view of the history of the Indian titles. A 
careful study of the records, and frequent consultations 
with his Attorney-General, had furthermore convinced 
him that Arthur's action was ultra vires, setting aside 
treaty rights by mere executive proclamation. Accord- 
ingly, nine days after his inauguration, he issued the 
following proclamation : "Whereas, it is alleged that cer- 
tain individuals, associations of persons, and corporations 
are in the unauthorized possession of portions of the terri- 
tory . . . recognized by treaties and laws of the United 
States, and by the executive authority thereof as Indian 
lands; now, therefore, for the purpose of protecting the 
public interests, as well as the interests of the Indian 
nations and tribes ... I, Grover Cleveland, President 
of the United States, do hereby warn all and every person 
or persons now in occupation of such lands, and all such 
person or persons as are intending, preparing, or threat- 
ening to enter . . . that they will neither be permitted to 
enter . . . nor, if already there, to remain." 

This proclamation was hailed as an indication that, 
with the coming of Grover Cleveland, a new leaf was to 
be turned in the history of "a century of dishonor," as 
Helen Hunt Jackson had named our dealings with the 
Indians. Mrs. Jackson herself, then in her last illness, 
wrote to the President: "From my deathbed I send you 
messages of my heartfelt thanks for what you have 
already done for the Indians. I am dying happier for 



CLEVELAND AND THE WARDS OF THE NATION 223 

the belief that I have that it is your hand that is destined 
to strike the first steady blow toward lifting the burden 
of infamy from our country and righting the wrongs of 
the Indian race." 

Within a month conditions developed which served 
to test the President's sincerity. The operations of the 
"cattle kings," men who had leased Indian lands at 
nominal prices and established upon them herds of cat- 
tle, were causing serious outbreaks and disorders. The 
savages were slaughtering cattle and terrorizing ranch- 
men, whom they charged with fraud and extortion. The 
invaders were pleading the existence of their Indian con- 
tracts and demanding protection, although conscious that 
these contracts, even had they been legal from the point 
of view of the United States, could have little meaning 
in the eyes of Indians, most of whom had no understand- 
ing of individual land tenure. 

Determined to have the facts in hand before deciding 
upon any course of action. President Cleveland sent Gen- 
eral Sheridan to Indian Territory to diagnose the case 
and suggest a remedy. The General reported that the 
cause of the disorder was the grass leases, by which the 
ranchmen agreed to pay a certain sum a year per acre 
for the privilege of grazing their cattle on the land set 
apart by the government for the Indians. These leases 
had been made without the consent of the government, in 
spite of the fact that the contract between the latter and 
the Indians stated that any lease which the Indians might 
make would not be legal without such consent. In this 
way, four million acres of grazing land, or about nine- 
tenths of the land of Indian Territory, was leased at 
from one to two cents a year per acre. Upon this land 
were fed hundreds of thousands of head of cattle. The 
cattle owners paid no taxes of any kind, and maintained 



224 GROVER CLEVELAND 

no roads. Moreover, the Indians were liable to the 
ranchmen for the loss or injury of cattle, and the value 
of such loss was deducted from the rentals. Thus white 
cupidity and Indian ignorance were parties to contracts 
which the latter were in no position to understand, and 
by which their just and lawful rights were taken from 
them. 

Such, in essence, was General Sheridan's report, and 
in the light of it President Cleveland, on April 17, 1885, 
issued a second proclamation which formally declared 
that President Arthur's order opening these lands was 
inoperative and void, and again warned all persons who 
had entered, or were preparing to enter, that they would 
not be allowed to remain. To such as under cover of 
Arthur's executive order were already within the Indian 
reserves, the proclamation gave sixty days in which to 
vacate, adding significantly: "All the power of the Gov- 
ernment will be employed to carry into proper execution 
the treaties and laws." 

This was a strong position, reversing as it did the 
deliberate action of his presidential predecessor, but one 
which appealed to such Americans as were interested in 
seeing justice done. The Mohonk Conference of 
friends of the Indian expressed their conviction that 
the President was "entitled to the thanks of the nation 
for his prompt, firm and energetic action"; and one of 
its speakers alluded to "the awakened conscience of the 
American people expressed in the executive will of Presi- 
dent Cleveland." 

The cattle men, however, believing the proclamation 
to be a mere play to political galleries, proceeded to 
bring pressure. Accompanied by a United States Sen- 
ator, a Congressman and the editor of a leading 
Democratic newspaper, their committee proceeded to 



CLEVELAND AND THE WARDS OF THE NATION 225 

Washington, confident that a President with a second 
term unwon would not dare to stand against them and 
their great interests, for the sake of a few thousand politi- 
cally impotent Indians. And so they went up to the 
capital city as gaily as though assured in advance of a 
favorable reception, and an order suspending the removal 
of their cattle until an entirely convenient season. 

Arrived at Washington, they were courteously re- 
ceived by the President, and encouraged to plead their 
case. This they did, fully and at leisure. They told him 
of the magnitude of their interests and the extent of their 
influence. They descanted upon the tremendous hard- 
ship it would be to them were they obliged to leave the 
territory upon which they had entered. 

Mr. Cleveland listened patiently and then replied — 
and in replying he was at his best. He knew well how 
to break down the barriers of sophistries that a ring 
erects, for he had been a ring fighter all his life. He 
told them that they had talked much about their interest, 
and nothing about that of the public. The public interest 
was what he represented, and would represent. They had 
enlarged much on hardships which were of their own 
making, and not at all upon rights that had been violated. 
Bad faith had been at the bottom of this and most other 
Indian troubles. Public peace and public honor had 
been sacrificed to enrich the trespassers and impoverish 
the Indians. Of the sixty days given them in which to 
leave, they had sacrificed twelve in an endeavor to get 
him to back down. They had made no effort to obey 
the law. They must leave, and had best begin to go at 
once. The command to remove their cattle would not 
be withdrawn. The policy would not be changed. The 
time would not be extended, except in specific cases 
where it had been proven that every endeavor had been 



226 GROVER CLEVELAND 

made to go within the allotted time, and then only for 
the purpose of insuring the removal, not for the purpose 
of postponing or preventing it. 

At this nev^r proof of his determination to see justice 
done, a volume of letters poured in upon him, some con- 
taining expert approval of his position, from men fa- 
miliar with the situation at first hand; some voicing 
pleas, more ardent than intelligent, for even greater 
severity. Mediums, claiming to be controlled by "Te- 
cumseh," "Miantinoma," or "Black Eagle," plied him 
with pages of advice upon Indian policy. Enticing 
pictures were drawn for him of the spirit land where 
the departed braves and heroic chieftains "speak and 
travel and do good to the whites." 

One enthusiastic spiritualist from New York wrote: 
"You would not scorn to see those Indians on the other 
side, as I so often see them. They are among our most 
talented and beautiful spirits — violent and fawn." Bushy- 
head, "Principal Chief" of the Cherokee nation, 
submitted a brief of nine typewritten sheets, most un- 
chieftain-like in character, being full of citations from 
Supreme Court decisions and excerpts from congressional 
statutes. And the Woman's National Indian Associa- 
tion of western Pennsylvania described his proclamations 
as marking the dawn of a new Indian policy. It was a 
weary burden, when added to his myriad other responsi- 
bilities, to weigh, study and decide the questions pre- 
sented; and Mr. Cleveland doubtless echoed the 
sentiment of a correspondent who remarked that the 
President must regret that ''any cattle came out of the 
ark." 

The most constructive of these communications, how- 
ever, while approving the President's brave insistence 
upon the enforcement of law, and his demand for cor- 



CLEVELAND AND THE WARDS OF THE NATION 227 

rections in the interest of even-handed justice, questioned 
the Government's entire policy of segregation. They 
argued that every reservation blocked the vs^ay to enter- 
prise, and that v^hat was needed was a new policy calcu- 
lated to absorb the Indians into the civilized life so re- 
sistlessly pressing their reservations on all sides. 

The conditions which in the past had made the reser- 
vation system measurably efifective in guarding Indian 
lands from white encroachments had passed forever. 
Large and populous states had developed, side by side 
with the reserved areas; and the tendency to invasion 
of the unused lands was irresistible. "It is no longer 
possible," wrote an Indian commissioner, "for the United 
States to keep its citizens out of these territories. It has 
been demonstrated that isolation is an impossibility, and 
that if possible it could never result in the elevation or 
civilization of the Indan." 

These views, repeated in many reports and letters laid 
before the President, were reinforced, late in the autumn 
of the same year, by a delegation from the Mohonk Con- 
ference, which visited him at Washington. After hear- 
ing their arguments, the President declared himself in 
accord with their general position. "Ultimately," he 
said, "lands must be given in severalty and the Indians 
thrown upon their own resources, but the question is 
meantime how best to prepare them for independence. 
... I should desire to do much and to place it among 
the achievements of my administration, yet probably I 
can only make a beginning. But I want that to be right, 
and I want to know what is the most useful thing that 
now can be done." Upon that matter the delegation was 
a unit. They desired a general law which would em- 
power the President to grant lands in severalty to such 



228 GROVER CLEVELAND 

Indians as he thought ready, at the same time giving them 
American citizenship. 

Before Mr. Cleveland, follov^ing his habitually de- 
liberate course, had fully decided v^hat he should do 
by way of carrying this suggestion into effect, reports of 
Indian agents intimated that certain tribes were disposed 
to press by war for rights which he was planning to 
secure for them by the surer methods of peace. The agent 
at Santa Fe predicted, "An Indian war is as sure to 
come next spring as that the sun will shine to-morrow," 
not a very convincing analogy for some sections of the 
country, but fairly conclusive when spoken in New 
Mexico. 

In order, if possible, to prevent such an outbreak. 
President Cleveland prepared the following instructions 
for General Sheridan: 

Lt. General P. H. Sheridan. 
Dear Sir: 

In view of the possible disturbances that may occur 
among the Indians now in the Indian Territory, and the 
contemplated concentration of troops in that locality, I 
deem it desirable that you proceed at once to the loca- 
tion where trouble is to be apprehended and advise with 
and direct those in command, as to the steps to be taken 
to prevent disorder and depredation by the Indians and 
as to the disposition of the troops. 

Your acquaintance with the history and the habits 
and customs of the Indians leads me also to request that 
you invite a statement on their part, as to any real or 
fancied injury or injustice towards them, or any other 
causes that may have led to discontent, and to inform 
yourself generally as to their condition. 

You are justified in assuring them that any cause of 



CLEVELAND AND THE WARDS OF THE NATION 229 

complaint will be fully examined by the authorities here, 
and if wrongs exist they shall be remedied. 

I think I hardly need add that they must be fully 
assured of the determination on the part of the govern- 
ment to enforce their peaceful conduct, and by all the 
power it has at hand, to prevent and punish acts of law- 
lessness and any outrages upon our settlers. 

Yours truly, 

Grover Cleveland. 

Already, however, acts of lawlessness had been com- 
mitted, and were being increasingly multiplied by the 
Apaches, who for three hundred years had been a scourge 
to northern Mexico, Arizona, and New Mexico. In 
May, they had begun to leave their reservation in small 
bands and, breaking over the borders, were leaving a 
trail of murder, arson, and pillage behind them. 

General Crook had at once opened pursuit upon what 
he termed these "tigers of the human race," and the local 
authorities had vigorously seconded him, adopting 
methods so ferocious as to cause Mark Twain to send 
the following protest to the President: "You not only 
have the power to destroy scoundrelism of many kinds 
in this country, but you have amply proved that you have 
also the unwavering disposition and purpose to do it." 
As convincing proof that scoundrelism existed among the 
chosen guardians of Indian lands, he enclosed the follow- 
ing official notice from the Southwest Sentinel of Silver 
City, New Mexico : 

$250 Reward 

The above reward will be paid by the Board of 
County Commissioners of Grant County to any citizen 
of said county for each and every hostile renegade 



230 GROVER CLEVELAND 

Apache killed by such citizen, on presentation to said 
board of the scalp of such Indian. 

By order of the Board, E. Stine, Clerk. 

Mark Twain's appeal, however, fell upon deaf ears. 
Sensitive as he was to the cry of injustice and inhumanity, 
Mr. Cleveland was equally conscious of the demands of 
law and order. His was not the type of character to spin 
theories of justice while neglecting to provide that indis- 
pensable prerequisite to justice, the protection of life and 
property. The Indians had appealed to the sword. To 
this, as he saw it, but one reply was possible : "Those who 
take the sword shall perish by the sword." He therefore 
made no effort to stay "the hand that smites." 

On April 20, 1886, General Miles, who had succeeded 
Crook in the command of the border, issued his field 
order No. 7, and the last of the Indian wars was begun. 
Thereafter, for months, Captain Henry W. Lawton and 
his fighting doctor comrade. Captain Leonard Wood, 
scoured the borders and the recesses of upper Mexico in 
search of Geronimo and his Apache followers. On July 
13th, the camp of Geronimo was surprised, and the cap- 
ture of the rebel Apaches soon followed. 

When the round-up came, the vanquished warriors, 
with all their tribe, were transported first to Florida and 
later to Mt. Vernon Barracks, Alabama, where, though 
well cared for, they were prisoners at large, held in 
restraint in defense of the rights of the majority, which 
they had violated. The result of this removal was to 
give peace and safety to New Mexico, Arizona and the 
whole Mexican border. War had been used to prevent 
a greater war. 

Despite this, and one or two similar instances of stern 
measures in defense of law and order, the general policy 



CLEVELAND AND THE WARDS OF THE NATION 23 1 

of Mr. Cleveland's administration was one of peace. The 
Commissioner for Indian Affairs, at the end of the year 
1886, reported that the "practical trial of this humani- 
tarian and peace system only adds cumulative testimony 
to the superiority of its methods of Indian civilization 
over any others ever yet tried." 

In September, 1886, Senator Davs^es of Massachusetts 
prepared a general act embodying the fundamental ideas 
which the Mohonk Conference had elaborated, and which 
President Cleveland had approved in substance in the 
autumn of 1885. Having received the approval of both 
houses of Congress, it was signed by the President on 
February 8, 1886. 

This law, which has been called the Indian Emanci- 
pation Act, made possible the disestablishment of the 
reservation system, and the transforming of the Indians 
from wards of the government into men in a world of 
men. It dealt chiefly with two questions: the Amer- 
icanization of the Indian, and the allotment to individual 
Indians of lands hitherto held as the property of tribes. 
It authorized, but did not require, the President to allot 
the lands in fixed quantities to such Indians as made 
application according to a prescribed form, providing, 
however, that if at the end of four years there should be 
any Indians who had not accepted allotments, the Secre- 
tary of the Interior should arrange for someone to act 
for them. In all cases the land taken was made inalien- 
able for twenty-five years. It was evident that in most 
reservations, after each Indian, man, woman and child, 
had received a designated share, amounting to from forty 
to three hundred and twenty acres each, there would be 
left much land to be accounted for. This the President 
was authorized to purchase from the Indians, depositing 
the purchase money in the United States treasury, to be 



232 GROVER CLEVELAND 

used for the education and civilization of the Indians on 
the reservation concerned. 

The other chief item of the bill gave the right of citi- 
zenship to such Indians as had already left their tribes 
and adopted "the habits of civilized life," truly a vague 
and difficult term, for the habits of civilized life are 
varied and hard to define. The right of citizenship was 
also conferred upon every Indian who received land, 
under this or any other law or treaty. Citizens thus made 
ceased automatically to be wards of the government, and 
became, as other citizens, amenable to the jurisdiction 
of the state or territory in which they should reside. 

"The law," declared Senator Dawes, with a just pride 
of achievement, "confers upon every Indian in this land 
a homestead of his own; and, if he will take it, it makes 
him a citizen of the United States, with all the privileges 
and immunities and rights of such a citizen, and opens to 
him the doors of all courts in the land upon the same 
terms that it opens them to every other citizen. . . . Two 
hundred thousand Indians have been led out, as it were, 
to a new life, to a new pathway." A pathway, he added, 
with a caution which the circumstances fully warranted, 
"which is to them all a mystery; they do not know whither 
it leads or how to travel it. In the darkness they are grop- 
ing about, and they are wandering away. They do not 
embrace this new life as by magic, and come out citizens 
of the United States." 

This was perfectly true. The law had enacted an 
opportunity and nothing more. It made it possible, fur- 
thermore, for an unwise President to push forward the 
process too rapidly, thus aggravating, rather than reliev- 
ing, the ills of the Indian. 

Mr. Cleveland, fully realizing the vital importance 
of caution, told Senator Dawes, when signing the bill. 



CLEVELAND AND THE WARDS OF THE NATION 233 

that he did not intend to apply it to more than one 
reservation at first, for he knew, as the Senator quaintly 
phrased it, that the "hunger and thirst of the white man 
for the Indian's land is almost equal to his hunger and 
thirst after righteousness." The President added the 
assurance that, in selecting agents to carry out the proc- 
esses of the bill, he would consult the friends of the 
Indians, knowing full well that a commissioner working 
in the interest of those desiring to secure the best lands 
could easily put the Indians upon the most inhospitable 
and unproductive sections, and sell the good sections to 
white men. In this cautious spirit, conscious of the pit- 
falls which yawned to punish precipitation or mistake, 
Mr. Cleveland studied the Indian question with aston- 
ishing care and patience, gave frequent audiences to com- 
mittees, teachers, and missionaries, and, by autumn, had 
designated twenty-seven reservations as fields for experi- 
mentation in land allotments. 

From the first, although a few tribes were favorable to 
the change, the greater number resented the appearance 
of allotment agents, even as the Englishmen of early days 
had resented the king's demand that they send representa- 
tives to consult with him regarding the making of laws. 
As the agents entered a reservation they were likely to see 
a cloud of dust in the distance, marking the course of 
the warriors taking to the woods, in order to avoid the 
hated process of being given a plot of ground with its 
attendant evil of American citizenship. 

In both cases reluctance registered the conviction that 
what was planned was of sinister import. The Indians 
no more understood what private ownership of land might 
mean to them than did the early English understand what 
the representative idea, if accepted, would mean to them. 
To the Indian the allotment was danger to the ancient 



234 GROVER CLEVELAND 

tribal system, and to the early English subject the sum- 
mons to elect representatives meant only a new tax. But 
despite these difficulties, the work of allotment pro- 
gressed, slowly but steadily. 

The pressure of expanding white population, on the 
other hand, advanced with great rapidity, making the 
opening of new lands imperative. A few weeks after 
Mr. Cleveland left the White House, in 1889, the extent 
of this pressure was graphically illustrated by the open- 
ing of Oklahoma to white invasion, despite the fact that 
the Seminole Indians had sold it to the American nation 
with the express understanding that no white settlers were 
to be allowed to acquire lands therein. It was the old 
story repeated. 

Most of the good farming and grazing country avail- 
able for homesteads had by that date been assigned, and 
the news that Oklahoma was to be opened caused a stir 
among the pioneer element. To avoid the preliminary 
rush. President Harrison's proclamation contained this 
paragraph: "Warning is hereby . . . given that no per- 
son entering upon and occupying said lands before said 
hour of 12 o'clock noon of the 22d day of April, A.D. 
1889, . . . will ever be permitted to enter any of said 
lands or acquire any rights thereto." 

But even so dire a threat could not prevent premature 
invasion, and the rich valleys of Oklahoma were alive 
with eager trespassers days before the signal was given. 
The greater host, however, encamped on the borders; 
and at the sound of the bugle they invaded with one mad 
rush, which between the morning and the evening 
shadows of that single day settled an empire. Towns 
which at dawn had been only blue prints, closed the day 
with the population of small cities. By December the 
reserved territory boasted 60,000 inhabitants, with schools, 



CLEVELAND AND THE WARDS OF THE NATION 235 

churches, newspapers, and much needed jails. Less than 
a year later, the same scene was enacted upon the Sioux 
reservation in South Dakota when its broad acres also 
were added to those which by presidential proclamation 
were made available for white settlers. 

It was the boast of President Harrison's Secretary of 
the Interior, John W. Noble, that during a single term 
he had opened to settlement more Indian reservations 
than all of his predecessors combined. And before Mr. 
Cleveland's second election these kaleidoscopic changes 
had produced, among the five civilized tribes of Indian 
Territory, conditions which made necessary there also 
the speedy destruction of the tribal system. 

In defiance of American law, but often with the eager 
connivance of the Indians whose property that law was 
designed to protect, negroes and white settlers had in- 
vaded the territory, until they outnumbered the Indians 
six to one. Moreover, just beyond their boundaries lay 
the recently opened regions, full of new settlers, many of 
them lawless, desperate men, who robbed trains, mur- 
dered travelers, and otherwise plied the profession of 
knights of the road with comparative impunity. When 
too hard pressed by the officers of the law, these despera- 
does ''jumped the borders" into one of the five Indian 
"republics" where, in view of the lack of extradition 
arrangements with the United States, they remained as 
free as Robin Hood, and twice as lawless. 

Of course, such a situation could not be tolerated. A 
short time before the inauguration of March 4, 1893, a 
committee of the Senate declared : "Their system of gov- 
ernment cannot be continued. ... It cannot be re- 
formed; it must be abandoned and a better one substi- 
tuted." And Mr. Cleveland, as Chief Executive, was 
expected to point the way. 



236 GROVER CLEVELAND 

This was an extremely difficult task, as the five civi- 
lized tribes, each with a kind of constitutional government 
of its own, held themselves sovereign, and desired to 
remain so, an ambition which Congress had recognized 
as legitimate by specifically exempting them from the 
operation of the Dawes bill. Moreover, the desire was 
not unnatural, in view of the large sums of money which 
were from time to time distributed among them as the 
result of land sales. 

The day before Mr. Cleveland's second inauguration. 
Congress provided for the appointment of three commis- 
sioners to negotiate with the five tribes for the purpose of 
extinguishing their tribal titles. Mr. Cleveland selected 
as this commission Henry L. Dawes, M. H. Kidd, and 
Archibald S. McKennon, instructing them to act only 
with the willing approval of the Indians — instructions 
which seemed to doom the negotiations to certain failure. 

The Dawes Commission received scant encourage- 
ment among the five civilized tribes. Wisely holding 
their peace as to the limitation of their power, they con- 
ferred with the chiefs and commissioners of each tribe, 
explaining the President's wish that lands should be 
allotted in severalty, and tribal governments changed 
into territorial governments. They could make no prog- 
ress. A general conference of four of the tribes was then 
held, the Seminoles taking no part. This conference 
lasted three days, and conditions had begun to appear 
favorable for an agreement when information reached 
the Indians that they were free to act as they pleased, the 
commission having instructions to do nothing without the 
consent of the tribes. This knowledge put an effectual 
check upon the disposition to negotiate, and the only re- 
sult of the conference was the adoption by the Indians of 
resolutions strongly condemning any change. 



CLEVELAND AND THE WARDS OF THE NATION 237 

The general conference having failed, the commis- 
sion returned to the original plan of conferences w^ith 
the chiefs of each tribe in turn. In private conversations, 
many of the Creek citizens expressed a disposition to 
accept the government's proposition; but, after listening 
to the address of a chief who warned them that they would 
each receive a lot of land only four by eight feet, the 
council again decided in the negative. 

A year or more of weary wrangling got the commis- 
sion no nearer their goal, and on November 20, 1894, they 
reported: The tribes "have demonstrated their incapacity 
to . . . govern themselves, and no higher duty can rest 
upon the Government that granted this authority than to 
revoke it when it has so lamentably failed." 

The President's view, however, did not accord with 
this drastic suggestion. He still believed that, with pa- 
tience, the Indians could be brought to see their own 
interests and to negotiate. On May 4, 1895, he wrote to 
Hoke Smith, Secretary of the Interior: 

My DEAR Sir: 

As the commission to negotiate and treat with the five 
civilized tribes of Indians are about to resume their 
labors, my interest in the subject they have in charge in- 
duces me to write you a few words concerning their work. 
As I said to the commissioners when they were first 
appointed, I am especially desirous that there shall be 
no reason in all time to come to charge the commissioners 
with any unfair dealing with the Indians, and that what- 
ever the results of their efforts may be the Indians will 
not be led into any action which they do not thoroughly 
understand or which is not clearly for their benefit. 

At the same time I still believe, as I have always 
believed, that the best interests of the Indians will be 



238 GROVER CLEVELAND 

found in American citizenship, with all the rights and 
privileges which belong to that condition. The approach 
of this relation should be carefully made and at every 
step the good and welfare of the Indian should be con- 
stantly kept in view, so that when the end is reached 
citizenship may be to them a real advantage, instead of 
an empty name. 

I hope the commissioners will inspire such confidence 
in these Indians with whom they have to deal that they 
will be listened to, and that the Indians will see the wis- 
dom and advantage of moving in the direction I have 
indicated. If they are willing to go immediately so far 
as we may think desirable, whatever steps are taken 
should be such as to point out the way and the results 
of which will encourage these people in future progress. 
A slow movement of that kind fully understood and ap- 
proved by the Indians is infinitely better than swifter 
results gained by broken pledges and false promises. 
Yours very truly, 

Grover Cleveland. 

In the end, the facts justified his patience. Early in 
February, 1897, he received from a commission of 
Chickasaws and Choctaws an elaborate memorial ex- 
plaining their refusal to accept his propositions sent 
through the commission and, while arraigning the United 
States upon the question of honesty, consenting under cer- 
tain conditions to the terms proposed. 

'We fear," they declared, "that should our two na- 
tions voluntarily convey the fee-title to our lands to the 
United States, that, when done, it would be claimed by 
the railroads . . . and, perhaps in the end [the Indians] 
lose their homes. For this reason, more than all others, 
we . . . have refused to sign said agreement. . . . We 



CLEVELAND AND THE WARDS OF THE NATION 239 

are now ready to agree to the allotment of all the public 
domain belonging to the Choctaw and the Chickasaw 
people . . . provided the fee-title remain in the respec- 
tive tribes until the allotments are completed and each 
allottee placed in peaceable possession of his or her allot- 
ment, and all other persons removed therefrom." As a 
preliminary condition they demanded "payment of the 
arrears of interest long since due on our trust fund . . . 
for we know from experience that it usually requires 
about two generations and a large amount of money, to 
prosecute to final judgment an Indian claim against the 
United States." 

Less than a month later, Mr. Cleveland left the White 
House forever, conscious that the Indian problem was in 
a fair way to solution, and conscious also that the savage 
wards of the nation had received at his hands that justice 
which he ever strove to give to rich and poor, powerful 
and powerless alike, in equal measure. Sixty thousand 
Indians, not counting those in Indian Territory, had 
taken lands in severalty, and become American citizens, 
and the process was still in progress. On February i, 
1898, the Board of Indian Commissioners reported that 
Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, and Seminoles had signed 
agreements, and the condition of imperium in imperio 
was at an end. 



CHAPTER X 

CLEVELAND, BISMARCK, AND SAMOA 

"I do not believe that nations any more than individuals 
can safely violate the rules of honesty and fair dealing." 

— Grover Cleveland. 

FROM the point of view of permanent achievement 
in the field of foreign affairs, Mr. Cleveland's presi- 
dential career is generally labeled "not particularly suc- 
cessful." The Alaskan fisheries produced friction with 
England, and his treaty designed to remove the cause of 
the difficulty was rejected by the Senate, which thus 
forced him to resort to temporary expedients such as 
never fully satisfied his really constructive mind. Sir 
Sackville-West, British Minister at Washington, by an 
indiscreet letter, caused him annoyance, which incident 
he himself erected into a question of international im- 
portance by peremptorily dismissing the offender and 
inviting insult in return from Downing Street. And 
even in Samoa, despite his best efforts to preserve Samoan 
sovereignty, Germany in the end succeeded in her per- 
sistent and well-laid plans of conquest. 

At first glance, therefore, the sum of his achievements 
in this field looks strangely like zero. But, if actual ac- 
complishment was small, the influence of his persistent 
struggle against what he considered German imperialism 
in Samoa, American imperialism in Hawaii, and British 
imperialism in Venezuela, was certainly considerable. 

He dared to stand for the rights of weak and helpless 

240 



CLEVELAND, BISMARCK, AND SAMOA 241 

nations at a time when it was, internationally, the fashion 
to disregard them, and in so doing committed the nsftion 
to a policy as creditable as it was unusual. 

The glory of America, in her dealings with helpless 
nations, in general, has been that we have given rather 
than taken; and Mr. Cleveland's foreign policy, even in 
its failures, helped to establish this ideal. It placed 
America before the world as a nation which would 
neither practice herself, nor countenance in others, the 
ancient methods of the international highwayman, how- 
ever strong his arm, and however determined his purpose. 

In writing the sentence, "We have a moral right to 
expect that no change of native rule shall extinguish 
the independence of the islands," Secretary Bayard stated 
for the President, not an abstract ideal, but a concrete 
program, which Mr. Cleveland insisted upon, not only 
from other nations but from his own as well; not only 
with reference to the Samoan Islands, but with reference 
to Hawaii and Venezuela, for in each instance he believed 
himself to be the defender of a threatened and impotent 
sovereignty. His decisions were not always correct, but 
they were always courageous, always unselfish, always 
the result of patient study. 

"The Athenians know what is right, but the Lacedae- 
monians practice it," runs a famous Greek sentence; 
and it may be as truly said that, while many Presidents 
have talked of self-determination, and of the duty of 
strong nations to respect and defend the rights of weaker 
ones, few, if any, have so fearlessly and so persistently 
practiced these noble conceptions as did Grover Cleve- 
land. To him, therefore, history must give a portion of 
the credit which has come to America from the interna- 
tional altruism which she has since shown, notably in her 



242 GROVER CLEVELAND 

dealings with China, with Cuba, and with the Philippine 
Islands. 

Prior to the Spanish War of 1898, which gave Amer- 
ica her first insular possessions, the United States was 
hardly a world power. Her traditional doctrine of 
avoiding entangling alliances had kept her apart from 
most of the great international problems which vex na- 
tions that indulge in foreign alliances. For that reason 
Grover Cleveland's letters, messages, and speeches con- 
tain comparatively little regarding foreign afifairs. One 
is constantly struck, upon comparing his papers with 
those of Theodore Roosevelt, with the astonishingly small 
place occupied by questions of foreign policy. Mr. 
Cleveland discussed foreign affairs very little, not because 
he was provincial-minded, but because he was the head 
of an isolated republic. Theodore Roosevelt discussed 
foreign afifairs almost incessantly, not because he was 
world-minded (though he happened to be), but because 
he had inherited the world problems which had become 
America's problems in the epochal era of William 
McKinley, George Dewey, John Hay, and Elihu Root. 

The rise of American interests in Samoa had been 
very gradual. In early days adventurous merchants from 
the west had entered the islands in pursuit of a trade 
which at first was casual. But in 1872 a guileless Samoan 
chief, guileless because ignorant of the Frankenstein 
image which he was invoking, granted to United States 
merchants the permanent right to use the harbor of 
Pago-Pago in the island of Tutuila. There followed 
promptly and properly the demand for laws that would 
secure life and property, and in 1875, after a conference 
in which an American adventurer, A. B. Steinberger, the 
foreign consuls, and the missionaries joined, Samoa 
adopted her first constitution. In certain respects it was 



CLEVELAND, BISMARCK, AND SAMOA 243 

an imitation of the Constitution of the United States; 
but it gave the Samoans only the semblance of representa- 
tive government, since under it the premier was prac- 
tically supreme, and Steinberger vsras premier. From the 
point of view of Steinberger, this was doubtless an ad- 
mirable arrangement, and it was certainly of advantage 
to American traders. But is seemed to lead in the direc- 
tion of ultimate annexation to the United States, and there 
were those present who were disposed to regard such an 
outcome as undesirable. 

To Samoa had come other merchants and adventurers, 
from Germany, from Great Britain, and from other 
Western nations, holding out the hand, but demanding 
rather than asking similar concessions. These, too, were 
granted, and with the new babel of voices there entered 
the islands those twin brethren who sail upon every trad- 
ing vessel, be it Occidental or Oriental,- white owned, 
black owned, brown, or yellow — jealousy and deceit. By 
degrees, therefore, there arose a complication of treaty 
agreements, not alone with Samoa, but among the nations 
which had developed trade relations with her. England 
had her agreements with Samoa, Germany had hers; but 
each had also agreements, bargains, understandings, with 
the other and with America, and each had her secret 
plans and ambitions, not too much centered upon the 
welfare of Samoa and her only partly civilized people. 
An American special agent, later sent to Samoa by Presi- 
dent Cleveland, registered the opinion that the mission- 
aries are "the only class who are in Samoa for the benefit 
of the natives, and who . . . have no interests of their 
own to serve." 

By 1878 British, German, and American rivalries had 
become so intense as to threaten open conflict. By virtue 
of a treaty which Secretary of State Evarts signed with 



244 GROVER CLEVELAND 

Samoa during the summer of that year, America obtained 
one advantage. The treaty opened to American com- 
merce, without import or export duty, not alone Pago- 
Pago, but other ports of the Samoan Islands, and estab- 
lished a guarded exterritoriality, by the provision that 
Americans should be judged "according to the laws of 
their country," and Samoans, "pursuant to Samoan laws." 

Of course existing jealousies were increased by the 
negotiation of such a treaty; but in 1879 they were soothed 
to rest by an agreement between England, Germany, and 
the United States, that no one of them would attempt to 
appropriate the islands. They also signed, on Septem- 
ber 2nd, a "municipality convention" establishing a sort 
of composite government for the town and adjacent terri- 
tory of Apia, the port and commercial center of Samoa. 
Delegates of the native government here united with the 
consuls of the interested foreign governments to preserve 
order, protect property, and make life secure. As a mat- 
ter of courtesy, rather than as an acknowledgment ot 
actual power, the native flag was suffered to float over 
Apia and the Samoan government buildings. Outside 
the area of this municipality convention there remained 
the ordinary Polynesian system of government — assem- 
bled chiefs, led by a head chief called by the ambitious 
title, "King of Samoa." 

Five years later a new convention was signed between 
Samoa and Germany. This treaty seriously menaced 
Samoan independence, and that it was accepted by the 
Samoan king, Malietoa, without a knowledge of its pro- 
visions and under duress, was made abundantly clear by 
a passionate letter of protest written by him to the Ger- 
man Emperor a few weeks after its publication : 

"I humble myself and beg and entreat Your Majesty 
to listen to my complaint. The first thing concerning 



CLEVELAND, BISMARCK, AND SAMOA 245 

which I wish to make known my complaint to Your 
Majesty is this: the agreement made on the loth No- 
vember between the Government of Germany and the 
Government of Samoa. The means by which that agree- 
ment was procured were unjust, for we did not want it 
and we were not permitted to deliberate and consider 
well concerning it. I wrote to the German Consul to 
give me a copy of that agreement in order that we might 
understand clearly the words in the agreement. But he 
was unwilling . . . unless we should first accept it, after 
which he would deliver up a copy to me and to my Gov- 
ernment. But the reason for my accepting it and for writ- 
ing our names . . . was on account of our fear through 
our being continually threatened." 

From this time on, Germany secretly encouraged a 
Samoan faction attached to a chief, Tamasese, in their 
rebellion against King Malietoa, hoping thereby to bring 
in "the day" when Germany could declare herself master 
of Apia. On January 23, 1885, "the day" arrived. Upon 
the pretext that the Samoans had failed to carry out treaty 
engagements, the German Consul General seized Apia 
and the peninsula of Mulinuu, upon which the Samoan 
government was established, and raised over the interna- 
tionalized district the imperial flag of Germany. Such 
was the situation when President Cleveland entered upon 
his duties as Chief Executive of the United States. 

For more than a year King Malietoa failed to dis- 
cover any method by which to recover his lost rights. At 
last, however, he bethought himself of the American 
treaty, which appeared to him to contain a promise of 
protection applicable to his existing distresses. He ac- 
cordingly dispatched to the American consul, Gjeene- 
baum, the following appeal: 



246 GROVER CLEVELAND 

Apia, May 10, 1886. 
Sir: In conformity with the treaty between this Gov- 
ernment and the United States, dated January 17, 1878, 
Article V, I hereby ask that my flag be hoisted under the 
protection of the United States, until existing difficulties 
are settled. 
SuLU, Malietoa, 

Secretary of State. King of Samoa. 

Article V, to which appeal was thus made, declares: 
''If, unhappily, any differences should have arisen, or 
shall hereafter arise, between the Samoan Government 
and any other Government in amity with the United 
States, the Government of the latter will employ its good 
offices for the purpose of adjusting those differences upon 
a satisfactory and solid foundation." There was nothing 
in this or in any other article of the treaty which required 
such action as Consul Greenebaum instantly set on foot. 
Without the knowledge or authority of the President, he 
extended to Malietoa and his domain the formal pro- 
tection of the United States. The German Consul Gen- 
eral at once gave "notice to all men" that "it is quite 
impossible that protection can be extended over the gov- 
ernment of Samoa by the American Consul before such 
instructions have been received from his own govern- 
ment," and warned the Samoans to place no trust in 
such promises. The representatives of Great Britain 
quite properly sustained this contention. 

Thus was created a situation demanding very definite 
and constructive action on the part of the Administra- 
tion. Merely to repudiate Greenebaum's act would be of 
little value, for the problems arising from Germany's 
acts would still remain. Accordingly, Secretary Bayard 
invited Great Britain and Germany to join with the 



CLEVELAND, BISMARCK, AND SAMOA 247 

United States in a conference designed to select "a com- 
petent and acceptable Chief" to rule as King of Samoa 
under the joint protectorate of the three powers, each 
of which should bind itself neither to annex Samoa nor 
to establish a separate protectorate over it. Both Eng- 
land and Germany readily consented, the latter suggest- 
ing, however, that no date could as yet be fixed as, owing 
to the lack of telegraphic communication with Samoa, 
some time must elapse before Germany could communi- 
cate with her consul. Opposite these words in the dis- 
patch is written, in Mr. Cleveland's handwriting, this 
question, denoting suspicion : "Was this a pretext for 
time?" 

But although the plan of tripartite control in Samoa 
came from Mr. Cleveland and Mr. Bayard, two staunch 
friends of the ancient American policy of steering clear 
of permanent foreign alliances, it is clear, from the in- 
structions given to their special agent sent to investigate 
conditions in July, 1886, that they did not for a moment 
contemplate a policy which would make permanent any 
form of foreign control over Samoa. Their aim was 
to "insure stable government in which native interests 
shall be under autonomous native control." Germany, 
however, had other ideas, and slowly her true attitude 
became evident. She took no steps to relax her hold on 
Apia, and, while encouraging the idea that every detail 
for settlement would be left for the tripartite conference, 
secretly gave ear to her nationals in Samoa who were 
pleading that the islands be received into the number of 
the German South Sea colonies. 

The months between July, 1886, and February, 1887, 
were used by the three governments to ascertain the facts, 
in preparation for the tripartite conference. The Ger- 
man agent reported in favor of a German protectorate, 



248 GROVER CLEVELAND 

arguing, by means of statistics, the authenticity of which 
the British agent flatly contradicted, that conditions made 
it necessary for Samoa to "be placed in the hands of but 
one of the treaty powers," and that Germany must be 
that one. The report of the American special agent, 
made even clearer Germany's imperialistic plans and 
purposes, revealing with the aid of numerous documents 
the long history of her intrigues in Samoa. It also showed 
how fully Great Britain's special agent, J. B. Thurston, 
sympathized with the American purpose of avoiding a 
permanent protectorate and establishing an effective, au- 
tonomous native government in Samoa. 

In addition, from the American vice-consul at Apia, 
President Cleveland learned that Germany was steadily 
fostering rebellion among the natives, and secretly fur- 
nishing arms to the rebels, at the very moment when 
she was solemnly taking counsel with England and 
America. When this became quite clear, Mr. Bayard 
sent to the German minister, von Alvensleben, the follow- 
ing letter: 

Department of State, Washington. 

March 2, 1 887. 
Sir: 

It is proper I should acquaint you with the purport 
of a dispatch just received at this department and dated 
January 31, 1887, from the American Vice Consul at 
Apia. It is stated in substance that Mr. Brandeis, lately 
connected with the German consulate at Apia, has been 
sent under pay and with the title of general, to give mili- 
tary instruction to Tamasese in promotion of his rebellion 
against the government at Malietoa. The Vice Consul 
further states that this action has been made the subject of 
earnest remonj^trance by Malietoa to the Imperial Ger- 
man Government. 



CLEVELAND, BISMARCK, AND SAMOA 249 

I trust that the just and benevolent plan of co- 
operation by the three powers will not be allowed to be 
impeded by any such inconsistent and maleficent action 
as has been so reported, and if any such steps have been 
taken, that your government will promptly check such 
action by its officials and under color of their approval. 
Accept, Sir, etc. 

T. F. Bayard. 

In his reply, dated April 11, 1887, von Alvensleben 
blandly denied all knowledge of Mr. Brandeis' activities 
in the interest of Samoan rebels, and disclaimed, on be- 
half of his government, all responsibility for them. 

During the meeting of the tripartite conference which 
was held at Washington in June and July, 1887, Germany 
steadily pressed her mandatory scheme, and England 
suddenly reversed her entire policy by sustaining Ger- 
many. Perhaps the item needed to explain this change 
may be furnished by the following, copied in the Berliner 
Tageblatt of October 23, 1887, from a recent issue of 
the Sydney Morning Herald: 

"It has not escaped observers that the Germans sup- 
port an uncommonly strong fleet in the Australian waters 
— a fleet which bears no proportion to the interests which 
they have to protect — and even if one believes that they 
will not at present attempt to oppose the wishes of Eng- 
land in reference to the scheme of South Sea annexation, 
nevertheless the fact that they are represented with such 
a force must occupy the attention not otherwise than very 
seriously of all interested parties. Taken ship for ship, 
they surpass the English fleet in these waters, and con- 
trol a greater number of men. The Nelson, our strongest 
ship, has a speed of about 14 knots, and is partially ar- 
mored. In the Bismarck, Olga, Carola, and Sophie, the 



2^0 GROVER CLEVELAND 

Germans possess a quartette which can reach a speed of 
13 to 14 knots, and is armed with modern Krupp's 
breech-loaders. All the ships of the royal navy which 
are here, with the exception of the Rapid carry old- 
fashioned muzzle-loaders, and not a single one of them 
could contend with the Germans under even tolerably 
equal conditions. Besides the ships already named, the 
Germans have in these waters also the corvette Adler, and 
the gunboat Albatross, so that their force consists of six 
ships, which carry about 52 guns and 2,000 men." 

England knew, therefore, that Bismarck had a 
thoroughly modern colonial policy, a policy of plunder 
backed by superior engines of force. And England, while 
never carrying white feathers in her kit, had been long 
enough a member of that brotherhood of European powers 
— robber-barons from the point of view of weak or back- 
ward nations — to prefer the peaceful ways of diplomacy 
to the more costly ways of war. With great difficulty 
she had adjusted her imperialistic plans to the new am- 
bitions of the Hohenzollerns, and she preferred not to 
disturb that adjustment, which, only on the sixth day of 
April, 1886, had been perfected in a formal agreement, 
whose astonishing terms recall the earlier papal line of 
demarcation. 

Secretary Bayard thus describes this document: It 
"contemplated the absorption by those two powers of 
almost all the independent territory in that part of the 
Pacific Ocean called the West Pacific . . . which had 
not already been occupied by some foreign power. 
Through that part of the Pacific a line of division was 
drawn to mark the respective spheres of British and 
German influence, and annexation; and each joint decla- 
ration agreed not to make any acquisitions of territory, 
nor to establish protectorates, nor to oppose the operations 



CLEVELAND, BISMARCK, AND SAMOA 25 1 

of the Other, in the sphere of action respectively assigned 
to it." It is true that under this marvelous declaration 
of a purpose to monopolize world-wide plunder, Samoa 
was an exception; but exceptions not infrequently cause 
more danger than rights falling within the rule. 

It is, therefore, by no means remarkable that the 
ministers of Great Britain, deeply as they sympathized 
with Mr. Cleveland's idealistic policy of saving for the 
natives themselves those few bits of territory still un- 
marked by the world's great plunderers, should have been 
inclined to humor Germany in her plan for annexing 
Samoa, provided that result could be accomplished by 
methods already consecrated by first-class nations intent 
upon expansion. It is also fair to assume, in view of 
such facts and of later open German aggressions, that, 
in agreeing to the tripartite conference, Germany was 
merely camouflaging her real plans, which were to annex 
Samoa. This is the more evjdent when we recall the fact 
that the tripartite conference opened with the clear un- 
derstanding that, pending its deliberations, affairs in 
Samoa should remain in statu quo. 

As soon as the conference adjourned, the more ruth- 
less side of Germany's plans began to appear. On Au- 
gust 29th, Alvensleben informed Secretary Bayard that 
the imperial government had found it necessary to declare 
war upon King Malietoa, and complacently referred to 
Great Britain's favorable attitude toward Germany's am- 
bition for a protectorate. There can be no doubt that 
this boast was justified by the facts. Speaking of an inter- 
polation of the ministry on the subject of Samoa, the 
London Times thus reported the spokesman of the minis- 
try: "A word fell from the honorable gentleman as to 
the presence of Germany in those seas. Our own coun- 
try has been engaged in the work of colonization. He 



252 GROVER CLEVELAND 

did not think we could expect that other nations which 
had a similar desire for expansion would not also seek 
to find colonies. . . . He did not think we ought to view 
with jealousy the advent of the civilized powers to 
colonies to some extent adjacent to our own. (Cheers.) 
If we sought to do so we should be pursuing a selfish 
policy." 

An equally frank avowal appears in the Berliner 
Tageblatt of a month earlier: "These little groups of 
islands cannot . . . remain independent forever, and it 
is therefore to be urgently wished that Germany should 
not exhibit too much delicacy with respect to Samoa, but 
take it while it is to be had. . . . America would have 
no serious objection to such a course, for her motto is 
'Trade, no dominion'; and England would joyfully give 
her assent, if she were permitted in payment therefor to 
lay her hands on the Tonga Islands." 

But while Great Britain and Germany stood together 
upon this general platform, Germany's methods soon 
alienated British sympathy, her war upon King Malietoa 
being conducted in a manner highly distasteful to Great 
Britain. "Not only has Tamasese (the rival chief) been 
installed as king," wrote the American Consul General 
on September lo, 1887, "but the Germans have driven 
Malietoa and his government from the capital. On the 
19th a German squadron of fopr ships commanded by 
Commodore Heusner arrived. On the 23rd a money 
demand was made upon the king; the same day he re- 
plied, asking for time to consult his government and 
people. Early the next morning war was begun. On 
the morning of the 25th Tamasese was brought here [to 
Apia], saluted as king, his flag raised at Mulinuu and 
over the government house where it now flies. ... A 
letter from the German consul now informed me that 



CLEVELAND, BISMARCK, AND SAMOA 253 

his government recognized Tamasese as King of Samoa. 
Immediately the British pro-consul joined me in a pro- 
clamation to the effect that we and our governments con- 
tinued to recognize Malietoa, and advised Samoans not 
to fight, but to await quietly the result of the conference." 

The natives, however, did fight for a time. They had 
had the greatest reverence for Germany and the German 
Emperor, but this same German Emperor had robbed 
them of their king and of their liberty. His demands had 
been barefacedly without excuse and no time had been 
given Malietoa to decide the question. 

The first demand had been that Malietoa should pay 
a large sum as indemnity for alleged insults inflicted upon 
the German Emperor and his people, prior to the appoint- 
ment of the commission by the three powers. The second 
was that he should perform ifu to Germany. The act of 
ifii is one whose degradation cannot be surpassed in the 
Samoan mind. It consists in "approaching the conqueror 
with the face of the conquered in the dust, and crawling 
upon the belly upon the ground to the feet of the victor." 

In describing the scene W. L. Rees writes : "The 17th 
of September will long be remembered by the Samoans. 
On that day Malietoa came down from the hills and sat 
with his chiefs beneath the telea tree in front of Govern- 
ment House. ... It was from that tree that the Samoan 
flag had flown until it was torn down by German officers 
and seamen . . . there it had again been hoisted beneath 
the Stars and Stripes when the German fleet had sailed 
away; there the people had come in long array to pay 
their tribute; there the king had received . . . the rep- 
resentatives of great nations; and there he now sat upon 
the grass, surrounded by a crowd of weeping friends, to 
take a sad farewell before he delivered himself into the 
hands of his enemies. The Germans did not interrupt 



254 GROVER CLEVELAND 

him. Tamasese kept far away. And while he spoke his 
last words of advice to his loving people, the tears flowed 
freely from all eyes. ... At two o'clock the farewell 
speeches were ended. Malietoa then rose, and, accom- 
panied by his chiefs and a large number of Europeans, 
went to the German barracks and gave himself up. 

"An hour afterwards the German consul came out 
with Malietoa, and they marched together to the wharf, 
where a boat waited to take them to the Bisfuarck. As 
Malietoa proceeded the crowds followed him. Many 
voices cried out in tones of grief, his friends clung about 
his person, his servants sought to touch, if possible, his 
hand. ... At length the exile disengaged himself from 
the embraces of his people, and having lifted his hands to 
bless them, sat down in the boat and was swiftly rowed 
to the German man-of-war. Next morning he was trans- 
ferred from the Bismarck to the Adler. All night the 
people watched the ships, and in the morning they saw 
him taken from one vessel to the other, which latter got 
up steam and left the harbor. Thousands of eyes, blinded 
with tears, watched the retreating form of the German 
ship until the last wreath of its smoke sank beneath the 
horizon. Then they dispersed to their homes. That day 
and for many days afterwards there was bitter sorrow 
throughout Samoa." 

Malietoa's farewell letter to the British and American 
consuls is a pathetic arraignment of those nations which 
had apparently acquiesced in his dethronement: "I was 
repeatedly told by the representatives of the British and 
American governments that they would afford me and 
my government every assistance and protection if I ab- 
stained from doing anything that might cause war among 
the Samoan people. Relying upon these promises, I did 
not put down the rebellion. Now I find that war has 



CLEVELAND, BISMARCK, AND SAMOA 255 

been made upon me by the Emperor of Germany and 
Tamasese has been proclaimed King of Samoa." These 
facts were doubtless in the mind of Mr. Bryce when, 
during an interpolation of the British ministry on its 
Samoan policy, he declared that the British Government 
"had played a sorry part in Samoa." 

Meanwhile the Germans were masters, not alone in 
the regions which had been under native rule, but within 
the internationalized area of Apia. Early in October, 
Sewall, our consul, sent the following cryptic cable: 
"Tamasese German aid usurps municipal government. 
Americans unprotected." At once the American naval 
vessel Adams, with Commander Kempfif in command, 
was ordered from Hawaii to Apia. She made the jour- 
ney in fourteen days, and upon her arrival found four 
German vessels anchored in the harbor. On January 29th, 
Rear-Admiral Kimberly, commander of the American 
naval force on the Pacific station, arrived at Apia to re- 
lieve the Adams, and a few days later informed Secretary 
Whitney that "King Tamasese is governed by a German 
named Brandeis, who is sustained by the German men- 
of-war Olga and Adler." 

Of course such a travesty upon native government 
created increasing discontent; and Mataafa, King of 
Atua, who had inherited most of the followers of the 
exiled king, Malietoa, began to hope for a successful 
revolution which would make him king, and many of 
the native chiefs, deserting the government "made in 
Germany," joined him. 

At this point Brandeis, the kingmaker, overplayed 
his hand, and influential followers of his "king," Tama- 
sese, demanded his dismissal. But Brandeis threatened 
that with him would go the protecting German vessels. 



256 GROVER CLEVELAND 

and with them, peace. Rebellion would at once be upon 
Tamasese, with no arm to help him. 

So Brandeis remained, the German warships re- 
mained; but peace did not remain, nor was it intended 
that it should. On September 15th the American State 
Department received the following cable: "Apia, Samoa, 
September 4, 1888. . . . Samoans at war. General revolt 
against Tamasese, Affairs more serious than ever. 
BlacKLOCK, Vice-Consul." 

The next document in the story is an example of the 
German policy with which the world has become dis- 
tressingly familiar in recent years — Schrechlichkeit. It 
is a proclamation, dated September 5, 1888, and de- 
clares: "By authority of His Majesty Tamasese, the King 
of Samoa, I make known unto you all that the German 
man-of-war is about to go, together with a Samoan fleet, 
for the purpose of burning Manono, on account of their 
secret actions. ... If you do not obey, then all your 
villages will be burnt down the same as Manono. These 
instructions were made and set forth in truth. In the 
sight of God in the Heaven, Chiefs, I am, Brandeis, The 
Chief Leader of the Government." 

This brutal announcement was instantly challenged 
by the American naval commander, R. P. Leary, of the 
Adams. "Being the only other representative of a naval 
power now present in this harbor," he wrote to Captain 
Fritze of the Adler, "for the sake of humanity I hereby 
respectfully and solemnly protest, in the name of the 
United States of America, and of the civilized world in 
general, against the use of a national war vessel for such 
services." Captain Fritze's reply has the one merit of 
frankness, and it shows clearly that he recognized his 
orders as imperial: "I am neither obliged to interfere 
with political affairs nor to inquire whether a requisition 



CLEVELAND, BISMARCK, AND SAMOA 257 

from the diplomatic representatives of the German Em- 
pire directed to me is lawful or not." 

- In America, public feeling registered in the form of 
a congressional appropriation of half a million dollars 
for the protection of American interests in Samoa; and 
in Samoa, native sentiment ranged itself upon the side of 
Mataafa v^^ith the result that Tamasese and his German 
master, Brandeis, soon found their following reduced to 
four native chiefs, with which sparse backing they were 
met and defeated by Mataafa on September 27th. At 
once America announced her intention of recognizing 
the victor as king by the choice of the Samoan people. 

As the months passed, however, it was increasingly 
evident to the President, now nearing the end of his first 
term of office, that his fight for Samoan autonomy was 
still unwon. Germany had evidently not abandoned hope 
of annexing Samoa, and Mr. Cleveland, still unshaken in 
his determination to thwart her obvious designs, ordered 
Admiral Kimberly back to Samoa. This done, he turned 
to the task of drafting his final message regarding the 
situation. On January 16, 1889, it was delivered to Con- 
gress. It is a brief summary of the history of his efforts 
to protect American interests and save Samoa from for- 
eign domination. That it does not fully represent his 
thoughts upon the subject of German aggressions, how- 
ever, is shown by the manuscript of another message 
found among his private papers. Had this document 
been sent at that critical moment, it would doubtless have 
aroused Germany as his later Venezuela message aroused 
England: 

To The Congress: 

I transmit herewith the translation of a dispatch a 
copy of which was left at the State Department on the 



258 GROVER CLEVELAND 

28th of January instant (1889) addressed by Count Bis- 
marck to the German minister at this capital. 

This dispatch is sent to Congress as containing an 
unequivocal statement of the manner in which the re- 
cent conflict between the native Samoans and a force from 
the German vessels stationed in Samoan waters [was car- 
ried on] and an authoritative declaration of the attitude 
of the German Government toward that part of the 
Samoan natives alleged to be guilty of the attack upon the 
Germans. 

The correctness of the narrative of this afifair and the 
causes leading to it cannot in the light of dispatches re- 
ceived at the State Department be conceded. . . . 

The dispatch of Count Bismarck which accompanies 
this message makes it certain the war will be prosecuted 
by the great power of Germany against the natives of 
Samoa who are held responsible upon the facts assumed 
by the Government of Germany for the attack upon Ger- 
man forces in said dispatch referred to. 

It is also entirely apparent that such warfare will 
be directed against the followers of Mataafa, one of the 
chiefs now engaged in the civil war at Samoa and that 
as an incident to such warfare the forces of Tamasese, 
the chief opposed to Mataafa, will become the allies of 
Germany. 

Nor is there any reason to doubt that if Germany 
and her allies succeed in destroying or subjugating 
Mataafa and his adherents, the Government which will 
be established will be one perhaps native in name, but 
German to all intents and purposes. 

Thus will be accompanied the purpose which Ger- 
many, in my opinion, has long had in view, being nothing 
less or different than the inauguration of a condition of 
government in the Islands of Samoa entirely in accord 



CLEVELAND, BISMARCK, AND SAMOA 259 

with German interest and standing for German suprem- 
acy. This purpose has colored any proposition of adjust- 
ment made by Germany and furnishes the key to all her 
acts. 

And still at all times the profession has been made 
by German representatives that the autonomy and inde- 
pendence of Samoa shall be maintained and our treaty 
rights respected. . . . 

On March 4, 1889, Benjamin Harrison became Presi- 
dent, and at once, in response to public demand, laid 
plans for the strengthening of the navy, conscious that 
war with Germany was by no means a remote possibility. 
Meanwhile Admiral Kimberly was on his way to Apia. 

"By the second week in March," wrote Robert Louis 
Stevenson, then living in Samoa, "three American ships 
were in Apia Bay, — the Nipsic, the Vandal ia, and the 
Trenton, carrying the flag of Rear-Admiral Kimberly; 
three German, — the Adler, the Eber, and the Olga; and 
one British, — the Calliope, Captain Kane. . . . The 
army of Mataafa still hung imminent behind the town. 
The German quarter was still daily garrisoned with fifty 
sailors from the squadron. What was yet more influen- 
tial, Germany and the States, at least in Apia Bay, were 
on the brink of war." 

But a hand stronger than the hand of war suddenly 
intervened. On March i6th, in the midst of this triple 
preparation, a hurricane of unprecedented fury swept 
the harbor of Apia, overwhelming the ships at their 
moorings. Only one vessel, the British steamer Calliope, 
escaped unharmed. And the returning Oriental sun 
shone upon a peaceful Samoa. 

"Thus," concludes Stevenson, . . . "within the dura- 
tion of a single day, the sword arm of each of the two 



26o GROVER CLEVELAND 

angry powers was broken; their formidable ships reduced 
to junk; their disciplined hundreds to a horde of cast- 
aways. . . . The so-called hurricane of March i6thmade 
thus a marking epoch in world-history; directly, and at 
once, it brought about the Congress and Treaty of Berlin ; 
indirectly, and by a process still continuing, it founded 
the modern navy of the States." 

This Berlin Congress, proposed by Bismarck him- 
self, was merely a reconvening of the old conference. It 
began its sittings on April 29th, a few weeks after Mr. 
Cleveland's retirement from the White House. J. A. 
Kasson, William Walter Phelps, and G. M. Bates repre- 
sented the United States, and the new Secretary of State, 
James G. Blaine, a man not to be overawed by *'the Iron 
Chancellor," stood back of them. When they cabled the 
fact that Bismarck flew into terrible rage whenever they 
opposed his evident determination to have the conference 
recognize Germany's domination in Samoa, Blaine sent 
back the now famous reply: "The extent of the Chan- 
cellor's irritability is not the measure of American rights." 
Thus supported, the American and the British commis- 
sioners stood firm in their demand for a triple control 
instead of a German dominion in Samoa, and on June 
14th, the three powers and Samoa entered into a treaty, 
guaranteeing the autonomy of the islands, restoring the 
banished Malietoa to his throne, and providing a tri- 
partite protectorate with the powers of the protectors 
lodged in a chief justice and a president of the munici- 
pality of Apia appointed by them. 

This was not what Germany desired, nor was it her 
intention to accept it as the end of her dream of annex- 
ation; but Bismarck, for the moment, acquiesced, and 
with such good grace as to create the impression of a 
change of heart. He abandoned King Tamasese, with- 



CLEVELAND, BISMARCK, AND SAMOA 26 1 

drew his German prop, Brandeis, the kingmaker, and 
returned the dethroned Malietoa, thus fully meeting the 
more obvious demands of the treaty. The result was to 
leave Mataafa, whom the Cleveland government had re- 
garded as the choice of the Samoan people, to wander in 
the shadows, plotting the rebellion which would give Ger- 
many her next chance. 

From the first the plans so carefully outlined by the 
three powers at Berlin failed. It was January, 1891, 
before the chief justice, Conrad Cederkrantz, arrived in 
Samoa, and it was another four months before the Presi- 
dent, Baron Senfift von Pilsach, joined him; but even 
then nothing happened. "The curtain had risen; there 
was no play," wrote Stevenson. But there was work. 
Within a month after the arrival of the Prussian presi- 
dent, ex-King Mataafa altered his course and assumed 
regal state. The grim trappings of war were seen again 
in the islands, bearing the inscription "Made in Ger- 
many," as intimated by Stevenson. "The voice of the two 
whites," he wrote, "has ever been for war. They have 
published at least one incendiary proclamation, they have 
armed and sent into the field at least one Samoan war- 
party. . . . Into the question of motive I refuse to enter; 
but if we come to war in these islands ... it will be a 
manufactured war, and one that has been manufactured 
. . . by two foreigners." Such was the German change 
of heart, being in reality only a change of method. In 
the triple alliance she saw a new pathway to German 
control. Having been thwarted in her attempts to annex 
by one method, she resorted to another, content to see a 
German Samoa at the end of a somewhat longer vista. 

Membership in the triple alliance, entered by the 
United States in disregard of the warnings of Grover 
Cleveland, meant that for the first time since Washington 



262 GROVER CLEVELAND 

issued his farewell warning against "entangling alliances," 
we were involved in just such an alliance. By the irony 
of fate, it worked well enough to tide over the four years 
of President Harrison who, on March 4, 1893, returned 
the executive office to Mr. Cleveland with the Samoan 
question again demanding attention. 

As the restored President looked over the situation, 
he found that the Germans had not abandoned their 
plans for the acquisition of Samoa, and that they regarded 
him with an intense antipathy, as the author of their 
earlier defeat. He saw also that the triple alliance was a 
failure, and urged Congress to withdraw "on some rea- 
sonable terms not prejudicial to any other existing rights." 
To the judgment of Congress, however, he appealed in 
vain. If Congress had any wisdom to spare, it failed to 
lend it to the Executive in aid of a solution to his per- 
plexing problem. And so the Samoan question rested. 
The triple protectorate remained an unredeemed failure, 
Germany, backing now one native aspirant for royal 
honors, now another, with America and Great Britain 
always in joint opposition. 

By 1900, when Grover Cleveland was again a private 
citizen, conditions at last brought the day of German 
success. The Berlin treaty was abrogated, and Great 
Britain withdrew all claims within the Samoan group 
in return for German concessions in other parts of the 
world, while the United States confined her sphere of 
influence in the islands to Tutuila and the harbor of Pago- 
Pago, which she had held, to all intents and purposes, in 
1872. The remainder of the beautiful Samoan group 
passed not to the sovereignty of its own people, but to the 
hands of the Hohenzollerns, the iron masters of the Ger- 
man Empire. 

German persistence had won at last, but during the 



CLEVELAND, BISMARCK, AND SAMOA 263 

conflict Grover Cleveland had tied the American people 
a little more closely to the doctrine of the future — the 
doctrine that among nations no less than among individ- 
uals, the strong have a duty to respect the rights of the 
v^eak, and to see that others respect them. "The chief 
historical significance of the Samoan incident," writes 
John Bassett Moore, "lies less in the disposition ultimately 
made of the islands, than in the assertion by the United 
States, not merely of a willingness, but even of a right, 
to take part in determining the fate of a remote and semi- 
barbarous people." 



CHAPTER XI 

THROWING AWAY THE PRESIDENCY 

"^Wliat is the use of being elected or re-elected unless you 
stand for something?" 

— Grover Cleveland, 

POLITICAL prophets, with minds set upon approach- 
ing presidential elections, are always deeply inter- 
ested in congressional elections and in local political 
sentiment. These are the straws which show the direc- 
tion of political winds. Early in July, 1886, Texas held 
her first congressional convention and renominated Crane 
of the seventh district. Incidentally, the convention re- 
solved: "That we recognize in Grover Cleveland a 
Democrat and patriot, who, under the heavy cares of his 
great office, has displayed masterly ability, unimpeach- 
able integrity, and heroic courage; and that we com- 
mend the fidelity with which he has fulfilled his pledges 
to the people in the face of great pressure to violate 
them." 

The Galveston News, the leading Democratic paper 
of the state, stamped this resolution as representative, not 
of the seventh Texas district alone, not of Texas alone, 
but of the entire South, declaring that nine Democrats out 
of ten in that part of the country and exclusive of office- 
seekers, were perfectly satisfied with Cleveland's adminis- 
tration, and that, if the national convention were held 
immediately, the South would be solid for his renomina- 
tion. But the fact that the South stood ready to renomi- 
nate the only Democrat who had occupied the White 

264 



THROWING AWAY THE PRESIDENCY 265 

House since the Civil War was, after all, not very sig- 
nificant, especially as great metropolitan journals like 
the New York Sun and the New York World longed to 
see the President's political scalp drying in the sun, be- 
fore Tammany Hall, or any other long house. Their at- 
tacks were incessant and very bitter. 

"Not long ago," said Public Opinion, on March 5, 
1887, "the New York Sun advocated the passage of the 
interstate commerce bill, but no sooner was it passed and 
approved by the President than that journal found nu- 
merous objections to it, and actually condemned the 
President for not vetoing it. The same paper contained 
column after column of editorial matter exposing the job 
known as the dependent pension bill, and called on the 
President to veto it. The President did veto it, and the 
Sun at once makes the veto an occasion for another stab 
at its author. The New York World took the same po- 
sition in regard to the pension bill, and called on the 
President to veto it, but no sooner did he do so than the 
World makes the remarkable discovery that public senti- 
ment is not as it represented it to be, but that among the 
G. A. R. there is a 'practically unanimous call from New 
York and other states for Congress to override the veto.' 
The Courier-Journal advocated the civil-service bill, 
indorsed a plank in the Democratic platform demanding 
the enforcement of the civil-service system, applauded the 
President's pledge that he would enforce it, and then 
turned suddenly to denounce bitterly both the law and the 
President for respecting it. It is highly complimentary 
to the President that these ingenious and pestiferous 
critics can find no other ground to justify their abuse of 
him than his adherence to his pledges and his enforce- 
ment of the law. After all their enterprise and busy 
zeal, they are left without a pretext for their hostility, 



266 GROVER CLEVELAND 

except what is found in the fact that the President has 
simply done what, at one time or another, they demanded 
of him. It is the old story over again of the lamb who 
muddies the water below the wolf, except that the Presi- 
dent is somewhat of a wolf himself when he has a mind 
to be." 

But despite such attacks President Cleveland con- 
tinued to follow his own judgment, demonstrating more 
and more every day that he was as ready to act without 
party support as with it, when convinced that his course 
lay in the line of duty. Such an attitude bred increased 
resentment on the part of Democratic politicians, although 
optimistic Democratic sheets labored hard to prove that 
gossip in the Republican press about differences between 
the President and the leaders of the party was the sheerest 
folly. 

More and more definitely, as the months passed, was 
the rift apparent. The Democratic politicians did not 
like Grover Cleveland: he could not be counted upon to 
"play the game." If there were dreams of a second term, 
it was not they who dreamed them, and in their narrow 
abuse they utterly failed to appreciate the impression 
which his honesty and fidelity in the discharge of duty 
had made upon the masses of the people. The Demo- 
cratic politicians were against the President, but the 
Democratic people were for him. 

"I have seen," declared ex-Senator Thurman of Ohio, 
"a good many Presidents in my long life. I have known 
several of them personally, and I have read the history 
of the administration of them all. I have seen and I 
know — and I think I know him full well — Grover Cleve- 
land, our President of the United States; and on my 
honor as a man who is bound to tell you the truth, if ever 
a man was bound to tell the truth to his fellow-man, I 



THROWING AWAY THE PRESIDENCY 267 

don't believe that a more honest, braver, truer man ever 
filled the Presidential chair of the United States." This 
opinion the people shared. 

How much they were for him appeared in his tour 
of glory of that autumn, his swing round the circle. He 
visited a dozen or more of the chief cities in the Middle 
West and South, and everywhere was greeted with the 
applause of expectant throngs. He won his audiences, 
not by the discussion of public issues, for he rarely dis- 
cussed them, but by the personal and friendly manner of 
his approach to his fellow citizens in each city that he 
visited. In St. Paul, for example, where Mrs. Cleveland 
had once been for a short time in school, he wrote into 
his address this telling paragraph : 

"My visit to you being a social one, and trusting that 
we have a sort of friendly feeling for each other, I want 
to suggest to you a reason why I am particularly and per- 
sonally interested in St. Paul and its people. Some years 
ago, I won't say how many, a young girl dwelt among 
you and went to school. She has grown up and is my 
wife. If anyone thinks a President ought not to mention 
things of this sort in public, I hope he or she does not 
live in St. Paul, for I don't want to shock anybody when 
I thank the good people of this city because they neither 
married nor spoiled my wife; and when I tell them that 
I had much rather have her than the Presidency." 

In October he returned to his executive duties, con- 
scious that in the South and Middle West at least he was 
a President with prospects. The country was prosperous, 
and understood how false had been the dire prophecies 
of those who had hailed the return of Democracy as the 
beginning of a long calamity. 

With a presidential year almost in sight, it was the 
part of the wise politician to say nothing definite, arouse 



268 GROVER CLEVELAND 

no new animosities, and so drift again into power. But 
Cleveland's masterful conscience was driving him onward 
toward quite another course. By degrees he had become 
convinced of the iniquities of the existing tariff laws and 
of his duty to open an uncompromising attack upon them. 
This conviction had come slowly, but with a controlling 
definiteness. 

When first chosen President he had considered him- 
self unequipped to form an opinion upon the tariff ques- 
tion. Having had no responsibility for the tariff, save 
that which falls to the lot of every citizen, he had not felt 
called upon to study the subject as he always studied every 
subject which came within the range of his official duty. 
And being devoid of pretense and of the pride of erudi- 
tion, he frankly confessed to his friends his need of help, 
following unconsciously but literally the advice which 
Charles Dickens once gave a group of students: "Admit 
ignorance of many things and thus avoid the more terrible 
alternative of being ignorant of all things." 

Carl Schurz has left this account of a conversation 
which he had with Mr. Cleveland shortly after the lat- 
ter's first election: 

"With characteristic directness [he] asked me what 
big questions I thought he ought to take up when he got 
into the White House. I told him I thought he ought 
to take up the tariff. I shall never forget what then hap- 
pened. The man bent forward and buried his face in 
his hands on the table before him. After two or three 
minutes he straightened up and, with the same directness, 
said to me: T am ashamed to say it, but the truth is I 
know nothing about the tariff. . . . Will you tell me how 
to go about it to learn?' 

"Of course I said I would. So I gave him a list of 
books to read. Did he read them? Indeed he did, and 



THROWING AWAY THE PRESIDENCY 269 

came back for more. Nobody ever worked harder to 
master a new subject than the determineid Cleveland 
worked to master the tariff." 

Realizing the strength of the arguments upon each 
side of the problem, the President at first halted between 
two opinions; but by slow degrees he grew to feel that 
a protective tariff, in the sense in which that term had been 
interpreted since the Civil War, was iniquitous, involv- 
ing favoritism for the few at the expense of the many. At 
times, during the two decades since Lee's surrender. Con- 
gress had shown signs of similar views, and had moved 
in the direction of reducing the war tariffs; but the per- 
serverance of the saints had been denied them, and the 
tariffs had one by one reappeared. Even when President 
Arthur's tariff commission, which consisted entirely of 
protectionists, had drawn up a bill aiming at a twenty 
per cent reduction. Congress had stilled its conscience, 
or its political forebodings, by cutting down this reduc- 
tion to three or four per cent. Thus, despite many pro- 
fessions, the tariffs remained practically undisturbed 
until President Cleveland's day, not for the sake of reve- 
nue, as the treasury surplus was a great embarrassment; 
not for protection merely, as such rates were far in ex- 
cess of those required to equalize the difference in wages 
between the United States and other manufacturing coun- 
tries, but, as Mr. Cleveland's study convinced him, in 
order that the manufacturer should enjoy a rich subsidy 
at the expense of the consumer. 

In his first annual message Mr. Cleveland ventured 
upon the general suggestion that, as the revenues were 
greatly in excess of the actual needs of an economical ad- 
ministration, they ought to be reduced in such a way as 
not to injure or destroy "interests which have been en- 
couraged by such laws" and with a view to the protection 



270 GROVER CLEVELAND 

of American labor. During the year following he sought 
the advice of many men learned in tariff history — cabinet 
members, Congressmen, Senators, and unofficial experts. 
As a consequence, the tone of his second annual message 
was more definite and more aggressive regarding the 
maintenance of war tariffs in time of peace. He pointed 
out the fact that the income of the government was greatly 
in excess of public necessities, receipts having increased 
by about fourteen million dollars, of which almost twelve 
million came from customs, and declared that "When 
more of the people's substance is exacted through the 
form of taxation than is necessary to meet the just obliga- 
tions of the Government and the expense of its economical 
administration . . . such exaction becomes ruthless ex- 
tortion and a violation of the fundamental principles of 
a free government." 

It was not tariff to which he objected, but tariff 
in excess of the needs of the Government. He was no 
idealist thinking free trade thoughts in a world of nations 
devoted to protection, but a practical, honest trustee in- 
sisting upon administration in the interest of the people. 
His increasingly bitter denunciations of the robber aspect 
of the tariff, as then administered, recall the picture of the 
Moorish pirate, Taric, Tarik, or Tariff, hovering about 
the entrance of the pillars of Hercules, forcing merchant 
vessels to share their cargoes with him. Historically, the 
word tariff means, in the language of frank piracy, the 
share of imported goods or money equivalent, which a 
government exacts as the price of admission. To Grover 
Cleveland, in that autumn of 1887, existing American 
tariff laws conjured up the vision of the grim Tarik 
plundering his helpless victims. 

As he watched the mounting surplus, bringing with 
it the inevitable evils of extravagance and inefficiency, 



THROWING AWAY THE PRESIDENCY 27 1 

he conceived the idea of bringing the facts to the notice 
of the public by devoting his entire message to this one 
topic. This, being an absolutely new departure, would 
in itself focus the attention of the country and cause com- 
ment and discussion of the issue which he was so urgently 
recommending. The facts, if once understood, would 
constitute sufficient argument in favor of reform. 

The average rate of tariff paid upon imports during 
the year 1887 had been exceeded only thirteen times in 
the history of the United States, and the amount so col- 
lected during the fiscal year was over fifty-five million 
dollars above the requirements of current expenses, while 
the estimated surplus for the succeeding year was vastly 
larger. Congress had refused to revise the tariff. The 
President would bring the pressure of public opinion to 
bear upon Congress, 

His political advisers for the most part opposed the 
plan. To them it seemed sheer political suicide to force 
such an issue in the face of a presidential campaign. But 
the outcome of that campaign was to the President a small 
matter compared with the duty which he saw before him. 
When one alarmed political prophet warned him that 
his defeat lurked in a too bold deliverance upon this sub- 
ject, he replied: "I would stultify myself if I failed to 
let the message go forward from any fear that it might 
affect my election." To another he answered: "What is 
the use of being elected or re-elected, unless you stand for 
something?" And so, in defiance of warning, and in the 
face of friendly dissuasion, he prepared the now famous 
tariff message, which sacrificed his immediate political 
future, and made of the tariff a living issue. 

On December 6, 1887, the message went to Congress, 
carrying consternation among his followers and jubilation 
into the camp of the enemy. It was not a radical docu- 



272 GROVER CLEVELAND 

ment and not a free-trade document. "Our progress 
toward a wise conclusion," it declared, ''will not be im- 
proved by dwelling upon the theories of protection and 
free trade. This savors too much of bandying epithets. 
It is a condition which confronts us — not a theory." 

With the precise language of a definite mind, he called 
attention to the fact that "while comparatively few use 
imported articles, millions . . . purchase and use things 
of the same kind made in this country, and pay therefor 
nearly or quite the same enhanced price which the duty 
adds to the imported articles. Those who buy imports 
pay the duty charged thereon into the public treasury, 
but the great majority of our citizens, who buy domestic 
articles of the same class, pay a sum at least approximately 
equal to this duty to the home manufacturer." 

At once blessings and curses descended upon his head. 
Henry George sent a cordial letter of congratulation; 
and the anti-protection journals were ecstatic in praise. 
The Nation pronounced it "the most courageous docu- 
ment that has been sent from the Executive Mansion since 
the close of the Civil War," laying down "a platform for 
the next national campaign as clean cut as any high-tarifif 
politician could possibly desire." The Post declared: 
"This message . . . makes the revenue question the para- 
mount and controlling one in American politics." The 
protectionist journals, on the other hand, were bitter and 
at times indecently insulting. "Free-trade, cant, and hum- 
bug," commented the headlines in the Chicago Journal. 
"Ignoramus, dolt, simpleton, idiot — firebug in public 
finance," were the epithets employed by the Commercial 
Gazette. 

James G. Blaine, then in France, cabled an interview 
designating the message as "Free trade," and intimating 
that it was in the interest of Great Britain, which cable 



THROWING AWAY THE PRESIDENCY 273 

the New York Tribufie interpreted in the phrase: "Mr. 
Blaine in Europe speaks as an American. Mr. Cleveland 
in America speaks as a British manufacturer, anxious to 
be admitted without any charge to a share of the best 
and largest market in the world." And some of the Lon- 
don papers, by their enthusiastic praise of the message, 
made easier the task of those seeking to convict the Presi- 
dent of unholy British sympathy. The London Morning 
Post of December 12th, after praising "that remarkable 
state document," and the wisdom and high courage of the 
man who had dared to deliver it, ventured upon the pre- 
diction that "sooner or later this Congress will recognize 
the wisdom of the President's advice and resolve to re- 
duce the Federal revenues." But no such flash of wisdom 
followed. There followed instead cries of indignation 
from thousands of Irish voters, susceptible to the faintest 
suspicion of pro-British sympathy on the part of an 
American public man; and thus the chief aim of the dis- 
tortion was secured. 

In Congress an abortive attempt was made, under the 
leadership of Roger Q. Mills, to push through a bill 
providing for a reduction of tariff revenues by about $53,- 
000,000, with other reductions amounting to a quarter of 
a million. The measure was conceived in a partisan 
spirit, and did not fairly represent the reform for which 
the President had pleaded. 

Round this Mills Bill raged the great tariff debate 
of 1888, Mills and Carlisle crossing swords with Mc- 
Kinley and Reed. The opponents of the President, in- 
cluding ex-Speaker Randall, rang the changes upon 
Blaine's suggestion that the Democrats were playing into 
the hands of the British merchant. Reed of Maine in- 
terpreted the policy of the administration in the follow- 
ing words: "A nice little dog . . . trotted along happy 



i^ 



/ — n) 



274 GROVER CLEVELAND 

as the day, for he had in his mouth a nice shoulder of 
succulent mutton. By and by he came to a stream bridged 
by a plank. He trotted along, and, looking over the side 
of the plank, he saw the markets of the world and dived 
for them." He emerged, said Mr. Reed, "the most mut- 
tonless dog that ever swam ashore." The Democrats, 
however, had a safe majority in the House, and on July 
2 1 St, they passed the Mills Bill, by a vote of 162 to 149, 
fourteen not voting. 

The Republican Senate, under the leadership of Alli- 
son and Aldrich, promptly produced a substitute as nar- 
row and partisan as the Mills Bill itself. In the conflict 
which ensued both bills were blocked, and the tariff ques- 
tion, still unsettled, remained the dominant issue for the 
elections of 1888. Thus Mr. Cleveland's message forced 
the two great parties to adopt definite positions upon the 
tariff, and to those positions they have in general adhered 
since that day. It also accomplished what Mr. Cleve- 
land's friends had predicted, disaster to all dreams of his 
re-election in 1888. 

Indeed, many Democrats high in party councils, and 
a few with well-defined ambitions for the succession, 
hoped that the tariff message had made impossible even 
the renomination of President Cleveland. Others sought 
to add to this longed-for disqualification the unquestioned 
fact that in his letter of acceptance of 1884, he had said: 
"We recognize in the eligibility of the President for re- 
election a most serious danger to that calm, deliberate, 
and intelligent political action which must characterize a 
government by the people." They believed, or professed 
to believe, that that statement bound Grover Cleveland 
to a single term. Such was not, however, a fair interpre- 
tation. Mr. Cleveland had merely suggested the idea that 
Presidents should be rendered ineligible for second terms. 



THROWING AWAY THE PRESIDENCY 275 

But no such law had been passed, no such action taken, 
either by Congress or by the people. Had the public re- 
sponded to his suggestion, it would have found him ready 
to co-operate. Having failed to do so, it left him free 
to seek a second term, should he so desire. 

Had he followed his own very strong inclination, as 
repeatedly expressed to his intimate friends, he would 
have refused a second nomination and spent the remainder 
of his days as a private citizen, but circumstances ren- 
dered such a course difficult. Fellow Democrats assured 
him that by such a refusal he would endanger party su- 
premacy and party associates who had served loyally un- 
der his banner. He also knew that a public statement 
of an intention to retire at the end of his first term would 
weaken, if not destroy, his usefulness, and imperil the 
success of his policies. In this knowledge his political 
enemies shared, and had even ventured to make such a 
statement for him, and to sign his name to it. Early in 
February, 1888, the Albany Times had bloomed out with 
the following specific and singularly clumsy communica- 
tion, palpably a forgery, which Lamont promptly de- 
nounced as such: 

Executive Mansion, Washington. 

February 6, 1888. 

My dear Friend : 

You have been correctly informed as to my fixed pur- 
pose to decline a renomination to the Presidency, and I 
am only awaiting a fitting occasion to make this purpose 
known to the country without seeming to decline in ad- 
vance what might never have been tendered me. Per- 
haps the meeting of the National Democratic Commit- 
tee here on the 22nd inst. may furnish as good an op- 
portunity as any. 



276 GROVER CLEVELAND 

The few friends to whom I have communicated my 
determination in this matter have without exception, and 
with great strenuousness, tried to dissuade me from it, and 
have used the same arguments in substance as those urged 
in your friendly letter. But, while the arguments are 
highly flattering to me personally, they are not at all con- 
vincing, and I do not feel that I ought to yield to them. 
There are several reasons entirely conclusive to my mind 
why I should not permit myself to be a candidate for 
renomination. 

In my letter accepting the nomination nearly four 
years ago, I took, as you know, strong ground against a 
second term; I have good and substantial reasons for my 
position, which are as strong now as they were then. I 
even went to the extent of advising an amendment to the 
Constitution prohibiting the election of anyone to the 
Presidency for a second term. Now, if there is one thing 
the people specially dislike it is the man, whether phy- 
sician or politician, who refuses to take the dose that he 
prescribes for others. "Practice what you preach" is an 
injunction that all honest men have a right to rigidly im- 
pose upon those who assume to advise the people. 

Again, you are well aware that the strongest opposition 
I have had to encounter from my own party during my 
Administration has arisen from the fact that I insisted 
upon standing by my pledges and by the platform of the 
convention that nominated me in their entirety. I refer 
especially to Civil Service Reform and the distribution 
of patronage. I am told — and I have no doubt it is true — 
that most of those who have criticised this feature of my 
Administration are opposed to my renomination and are 
doing all they can to thwart it. Now, suppose I were to 
accept a renomination. Do you not see in what an ex- 



THROWING AWAY THE PRESIDENCY 277 

tremely selfish and hypocritical light I should be placed 
before these men and before the world? 

''Here is a man," they would say, "who was extremely 
punctilious and conscientious about breaking any pledges 
or violating any planks in the platform that were cal- 
culated to benefit Democrats and reward the men who 
worked to elect him, but when it comes to his own per- 
sonal interest, and he sees a chance to perpetuate himself 
in office, he has no scruples about breaking any pledges 
or smashing any plank in the platform, even though it 
was voluntarily framed by himself and recommended 
for incorporation into the Constitution." 

This kind of criticism, as you must admit, would be 
unanswerable, as well as just, and I can not consent to 
stand in such a light as it would place me before my 
countrymen. But independently of these considerations, 
is it not true that the one-term principle is the right prin- 
ciple after all? Has it not, in fact, become almost a fixed 
principle in the Democratic creed? Our party made 
it a specific and distinctive feature of its platform in 1872. 
In 1876 Samuel J. Tilden, in his letter accepting the 
nomination to the Presidency, said: "No reform of the 
Civil Service in this country will be complete and per- 
manent until its Chief Magistrate is disqualified for re- 
election." 

Not only in its platforms, but in the practice of its 
candidates, has the Democratic party for half a century 
adhered to the one-term idea. Since the days of General 
Jackson no Democratic President has sought a renomina- 
tion, except his immediate successor, Mr. Van Buren, 
and he was overwhelmingly defeated. Even Washington, 
who it is claimed set the example for a second term, was 
personally in favor of a single term, and had, as he says 
in his Farewell Address, prepared an address to the people 



278 GROVER CLEVELAND 

declining a renomination, but was persuaded to reconsider 
it solely on account of the then "perplexed and critical 
posture of our affairs with foreign nations." 

No such exigency in the foreign or domestic afifairs of 
our Government exists at present, or ever has existed since 
the time of Washington, except, perhaps, on the occasion 
of Lincoln's renomination. Certainly there is not now, 
nor is there likely to be in the next four years, any con- 
dition of public afifairs in this country that can not be 
fully met and successfully dealt with by scores of Demo- 
crats in our party who have had far more experience in 
public life than myself, and who have also stronger claims 
on the gratitude of their countrymen. 

Finally, I can see no good and substantial reason why 
I should consent to be a candidate for re-election, while 
I can see a great many reasons why I should not. My 
only regret is that I did not announce my determination 
in respect to a second term in my inaugural address. It 
would have saved me a great deal of unkind, as well as 
unfounded, criticism that has been indulged in during 
the last six months with regard to my alleged objects and 
intentions. It was only by an oversight that it was omitted 
from my inaugural, for my purpose in this regard was 
fixed then as it is now, and has been ever since I wrote 
my letter of acceptance. 

With sincere regard, your friend, 

Grover Cleveland. 

In the state of New York Mr. Cleveland's prospects 
were distinctly unfavorable. There his political enemies 
of Democratic persuasion, including his perennial foes 
of Tammany Hall, had long since planned his elimina- 
tion. More than a year earlier George F. Spinney wrote : 

"I want to say that there are politicians high in the 



THROWING AWAY THE PRESIDENCY 279 

Democratic party in this state who actually believe that 
they can secure a majority of the New York delegation 
at the next national convention and thus seize a nomina- 
tion for a gentleman who is without training in national 
affairs, and, I may truthfully add, does not possess the 
confidence of that very large portion of our intelligent 
citizens . . . who are anxious for your reelection and 
who will heartily support you at the polls if they are not 
robbed of that opportunity by the intriguers of your own 
party. Governor Hill has about him, I regret to say, 
some reckless advisers, men who are tainted with fraud 
and who scruple at nothing in the game of politics. Un- 
less these men are checked, and that very speedily, they 
will, in my judgment, succeed in so blocking the way that 
your own friends within the party must go to the wall; 
and with their retirement must be abandoned the hope 
that the management of our national affairs will be con- 
tinued in honest hands another presidential term. 

"It is with many pangs of regret that I here record the 
prediction that unless judicious action is promptly taken, 
within six months your enemies will have secured the 
State Committee and will have so fortified themselves 
for carrying the state for their own candidate the fol- 
lowing year, that it will be impossible for your friends 
to prevent their carrying out their plans. And when 
I say your friends, I mean the more decent portion of the 
Democratic party. True, these intriguers may pull the 
temple down upon themselves and enrich some western 
state with a presidential nomination. They may be so 
shortsighted as not to take that fact into consideration. 
Even if they did, they are so ambitious and reckless that 
they will take any chances. 

"As I know and as others know, you were already 
beaten when your friends went quietly to work for you 



28o GROVER CLEVELAND 

in the spring of 1884. I need not recall the Herculean 
labors which they performed. I was an observer and saw 
much. Others who were participants have told me more. 
To-day, as matters stand, you are beaten in the State of 
New York, and no one can more sincerely regret the ad- 
mission than myself." 

For over a year Spinney had shot such letters into 
Washington, laying bare what he believed to be a plot 
between Hill, Murphy, and the Blaine men to defeat 
President Cleveland, while making certain that Hill 
would be re-elected Governor of New York and made 
presidential timber by his demonstrated ability to control 
the Empire State. Being himself a shrewd judge of men, 
Mr. Cleveland could not have failed to form a fairly 
accurate conception of the man who had succeeded him 
as Governor of New York, and who had been later elected 
to that same high office, chiefly through the support of 
Democrats with scant sympathy for reform movements 
in politics. 

David B. Hill was a master politician of a none too 
subtle character, a scientific manipulator of no mean 
cunning, who had studied for a career in politics as some 
men study for holy orders. His school had taught him 
the art of forming alliances, the science of effective com- 
binations. It had not taught him the humanities of 
politics. He was cold, he was harsh, he was masterful; 
but he was financially above reproach. He could inspire 
fear, at times even admiration, but never afifection. Thus 
he was forced to lure rather than to lead, to tempt rather 
than to inspire. But he was shrewd enough to be liberal 
in distributing the spoils when the victory was won. 

Mr. Cleveland's personal and political relations with 
him had been cordial, at times almost intimate, despite 
frequent warnings from friends that the Governor was 



THROWING AWAY THE PRESIDENCY 28 1 

planning to supplant him. Not himself eager to stand 
for a second term, Mr. Cleveland showed little resent- 
ment at Hill's apparent attitude. If the Governor had 
ambitions, Mr. Cleveland saw no reason to resent them; 
for Hill was clearly entitled to ambitions, even should 
they rise to the high office which he himself held. "I 
am quite fully convinced," he wrote to Bissell, "that 
schemes are on foot for an. anti-administration control in 
New York . . . but you know my feeling well enough 
to be satisfied that it will not keep me awake at night. 
I do think, however, that a move ought to be made toward 
organization for the sake of the best interests of the party 
— whatever they are." 

In the same strain he wrote to his friend James 
Shanahan: 

"I hardly think that you will be surprised to hear that 
my feelings, tastes, and inclinations are such that if I felt 
justified in following their lead and doing precisely as I 
personally desire, I would insist that my public life 
should end with the fourth of March next; and if any 
person authorized to speak for our grand party would 
to-day give me my discharge to take effect on the day I 
have named, I should be a very happy man. But I am 
daily and hourly told that the conditions are such that 
such a course is not open without endangering the su- 
premacy of the party and the good of the country. Oc- 
cupying the position I do on this subject, having no 
personal ambition, willing to obey the command of my 
party and by my own act being in no man's way, I confess 
I cannot quite keep my temper when I learn of the mean 
and low attempts that are made by underhand means 
to endanger the results to which I am devoted. And 
when I see such good staunch friends as you with their 



282 GROVER CLEVELAND 

coats off and sleeves rolled up, I feel like taking a hand 
with them. 

"Much of what you say in your letter corroborates 
what I have heard before concerning certain parties and 
influences which you mention. Many friends have been 
here since the Albany meeting of the committee and I 
think plans have been pretty well made in different parts 
of the State. There is no slumbering and if the Albany 
fiasco did nothing else it roused up a lot of first-rate men 
and led them to see the danger of inaction. . . . There 
has been enough of lying since the meeting of the State 
Committee to damn the world; and it has amused us a 
good deal here to see certain people protesting either that 
they had nothing to do with some queer transactions or 
that they didn't mean anything. Ex-Mayor Grace was 
here and said to me, 'Don't let them give you any sleep- 
ing doses' — and I have not. I think I know a man who 
will before a great while be asking such men as you for 
the nomination for Governor and will be protesting that 
all his manipulation was for the general good and for the 
purpose of keeping certain discontented persons in line, 
&c., &c. 

"I have written very frankly to you and said more 
about my feelings and inclinations than I intended; and 
some of what I have written is, of course, intended for 
you alone. My position is this: I should personally like 
better than anything else to be let alone and let out; but 
although I often get quite discouraged and feel like in- 
sisting upon following my inclinations, I shall neither go 
counter to the wishes of the party I love and which has 
honored me, nor shall I desert my friends." 

Feeling that Governor Hill's growing prospects of 
renomination were a very serious menace to Mr. Cleve- 
land's own political future, his friends urged the Presi- 



THROWING AWAY THE PRESIDENCY 283 

dent to use his influence in the gubernatorial contest. But 
Mr. Cleveland declined absolutely to interfere in the 
matter. He would not attempt to read his New York 
enemies out of the party. 

But despite this disposition to view with good- 
humored tolerance movements designed to eliminate him 
from consideration for a second term, he was determined 
that his record as President should not be misrepresented 
at the New York State Convention. Accordingly, just be- 
fore that body assembled, he wrote the following frank 
commendation of his own administration, as a guide to 
those of his friends who should become members of the 
platform committee : 

• ''The representatives of the Democratic party in the 
state of New York, assembled for the purpose of selecting 
delegates . . . direct thoughtful attention to the fact that 
all the pledges and assurances made at the Democratic 
Convention of 1884 have been fully kept and realized. 
The allegiance and adherence of the State Democracy 
to the principles announced by that Convention and the 
State Convention of 1887 are hereby again declared, with 
an explicit approval of the doctrines contained in the 
last annual message of the President to the Congress that 
the people should not be unnecessarily taxed under a 
pretext of Governmental necessity; that in promotion of 
the public welfare and in the interest of American labor 
and the healthful condition of our established industries 
and enterprises, taxation for the mere purpose of unfairly 
benefiting the few at the expense of the many, is a per- 
version of governmental power; and that a large surplus 
in the National Treasury drawn by vicious taxation from 
the channels of trade is a dangerous and indefensible 
abuse. 

"The Democracy of the State is justly proud of the 



284 GROVER CLEVELAND 

fact that one of its members was selected to carry to a suc- 
cessful issue in the last national campaign, the contest for 
the supremacy of the principles of popular government 
and for the defeat and destruction of the false theories 
and corrupt practices which threatened the happiness and 
welfare of the American people. His wise guidance and 
administration of public affairs as Chief Executive of 
the Nation have exhibited to the Democracy of the Land 
and to all our citizens, the value and the beneficent results 
of a faithful discharge of public duty. During his in- 
cumbency our system of government has been restored to 
the honest simplicity impressed upon it by its founders; 
integrity and ability have been substituted for artifice and 
incapacity in public places; the Civil Service has been 
purified, elevated and improved; economies have been in- 
augurated, useless offices have been abolished and busi- 
ness methods have been introduced in the management 
of governmental affairs; millions of acres of the public 
domain have been wrested from the grasp of foreign and 
domestic speculators and returned to settlers seeking 
homes; the waste and corrupt misuse of funds appro- 
priated for the rebuilding of our navy have been exposed 
and corrected and the scandals arising therefrom no 
longer offend the moral sense of the people; thousands 
of names of deserving veterans have been added to the 
pension rolls; the rights of every citizen have been main- 
tained at home and abroad; sectional hate has been dis- 
couraged and friendly relations among all our people 
have been promoted. 

"In the light of such achievements, in recognition 
of faithful public service, to the end that reforms already 
inaugurated may be fully completed, and in strict obedi- 
ence to the mandate of the Democratic and Independent 
voters of the State, the delegates selected by this Conven- 



THROWING AWAY THE PRESIDENCY 285 

tion are instructed to present to the National Democratic 
Convention the name of Grover Cleveland as their candi- 
date for President of the United States. And said dele- 
gates are further instructed to act as a unit in all matters 
entrusted to their charge, said action to be in accordance 
with the preference of a majority of said delegates." 

From now on, echoes of the old slanders of 1884 be- 
gan to appear, coupled with new and astonishing ones; 
and most ingenious devices were resorted to to get them 
before the public. Mrs. Cleveland herself received the 
following letter written, apparently in good faith, by one 
eager to know the truth about these matters of vague 
rumor: 

Worcester, Mass., 

May 29/88. 
Mrs. Cleveland. 
Dear Madam: 

You will no doubt be surprised to receive this com- 
munication, but as it is of interest to yourself only, and 
not the writer, I know you will pardon the intrusion. To 
explain. The City in which I at present reside, is in a 
state of agitation over an item which appeared in one of 
the daily papers this morning, in regard to the uncon- 
genial state of affairs at the White House. I can't credit 
such statements as are there made, and feel it to be my 
duty to give you an opportunity to deny them, which I 
do by sending the enclosed items, that you may read them 
as they appear. I myself think this is only a ruse to lead 
those who favor Mr. Cleveland, to change their views, 
and I think from what I have heard today that it will 
not fail in its object unless authoritatively denied. I re- 
sided in Wash, up to within a year or two ago and failed 
to learn what this paper says has been an open secret 



286 GROVER CLEVELAND 

for some time. It would gratify me very much to have 
you answer this, as I wish to convince some friends with 
whom I conversed today, that the whole thing is a false- 
hood. 

I remain Respec'ly 

Mrs. Maggie Nicodemus. 

Mrs. Cleveland's reply was immediate and con- 
vincing: 

Executive Mansion, Washington, 

June J, 1888. 
Mrs. Nicodemus : 
Dear Madam: 

I can only say in answer to your letter that every state- 
ment made by the Rev. C. H. Pendleton in the interview 
which you send me is basely false, and I pity the man of 
his calling who has been made the tool to give circulation 
to such wicked and heartless lies. I can wish the women 
of our Country no greater blessing than that their homes 
and lives may be as happy, and their husbands may be as 
kind, attentive, considerate and affectionate as mine. 

Very truly, 

Frances F. Cleveland. 

This denial had little effect, for it was not truth that 
interested the President's persecutors. The tales con- 
tinued to circulate, advantage being taken of every inci- 
dent susceptible of misinterpretation. Did Mrs. Cleve- 
land but go for a day or two to New York or Philadel- 
phia, on a visit or to shop, the report flew over the country 
that she had been obliged to leave the President and 
would not return. Time and again the lie was circulated 
that Mr. Cleveland's inhuman treatment had caused her 



THROWING AWAY THE PRESIDENCY 287 

to leave the White House in the middle of the night and 
seek shelter at the home of friends. 

In vain did Mrs. Folsom, Mrs. Whitney, Mrs. Greely, 
Miss Willard, and others in a position to know the facts 
about the President and his v^ife deny the baseless slan- 
ders. The stories grew from bad to worse, were whis- 
pered in every ear that would listen, were hawked about 
hotel corridors and newspaper offices, were written in 
private letters to individuals, till well-nigh the whole of 
America had heard them. No effective method could 
be found either to stop the slanders, or to fix the responsi- 
bility upon the authors. With diabolical ingenuity, cruel 
falsehood was sent abroad through the channels of the 
innocent. The Baptist ministers, at a conference in Wash- 
ington, were charged with it before they left for their 
homes, and spread it in their congregations and through 
letters to their professional brethren. Children were told 
of it at the Sunday schools. In one case it was actually 
carried around from house to house by a female colpor- 
teur, who used to weep in telling it. At dinner tables in 
the cities it was freely repeated, and always on the au- 
thority of someone else who was present at some horrid 
scene. 

On June 4, Silas W. Burt wrote to Colonel Lamont 
of certain "mysterious intimations in the air that an awful 
scandal about the President would be launched soon after 
his nomination. I could not learn its purport until Satur- 
day, since which time it has reached me from several 
sources and my friendship and attachment for the Presi- 
dent urges me to write to you about it. It is so absolutely 
absurd and ridiculous that I could not conceive it possible 
that it would be uttered, were it not for the campaign 
libels of '84 and the malignant and vile abuse spewed out 
by Ingalls. The new lie is that the President gets drunk 



288 GROVER CLEVELAND 

and beats his wife so that she makes every pretext to be 
away from him. In the long list of foul calumnies that 
have been hatched by partisan rancor in the past I can 
recall none so utterly base as this. ... It may be that 
this lie is to be uttered not openly but whispered about 
in secret detraction and it has already gained some cur- 
rency in that way, though in every instance that I have 
heard of, it has been treated with absolute disbelief and 
disgust. Is it possible that Ingalls' recent vituperative 
diatribe sets the keynote of the Republican campaign? 
If so, it will be certainly disagreeable but will make the 
failure of that side more overwhelming." 

Nor was the scandal confined to newspapers and pri- 
vate individuals. It echoed even in the halls of Congress, 
often in language most unbecoming a representative of 
the United States. After a particularly flagrant attack, 
a reporter said to Mr. Cleveland : ^'People are sometimes 
curious to know, Mr. President, how you regard these 
congressional assaults made on you personally." To 
which Mr. Cleveland replied: "In regard to personal 
assaults made upon me by my political opponents, I am 
free to say I care little for them. I know they are not 
true, and I believe they are meant to be understood — 
by myself at least — in a Pickwickian sense. I confess that 
the speeches of some of the Senators surprise me, for I 
look upon the Senate of the United States as the most 
dignified body in the world, and certainly there have been 
speeches delivered there which do not comport with that 
dignity. But if they can stand it I can. I am a little 
amused, though, sometimes that these very Republican 
Senators who are the most bitter against me have no 
hesitation in asking very particular favors at my hands." 

The Republican press generally denied any part in 
the wretched business. "The country knows," wrote one 



THROWING AWAY THE PRESIDENCY 289 

incensed editor, "that the Republican press has not cir- 
culated any of these vile stories or discussed the subject." 
And he added: "Without exception, the stories . . . 
were originated by Democrats, and further than this, by 
Democrats whose names are known throughout their 
party. And further still, the very worst talk of all origi- 
nated among Democrats who were active and prominent 
in the headquarters of the National Democratic Com- 
mittee of New York." 

Slander, like the proverbial cat, has nine lives; but 
slander of the great has ninety times nine. Despite de- 
nials, despite disproof, despite the softening touch of 
time, the poison of those slanders concerning Grover 
Cleveland's domestic life have outlived the generation 
which witnessed their unholy birth, in the "earth slime" 
of filthy politics. 

On the fifth day of June, the Democratic National 
Convention assembled at St. Louis. From the first it was 
evident that Mr. Cleveland must be the nominee. A 
repudiation of him would be equivalent to a confession 
by the Democratic party that their only President since 
Buchanan had been a failure. The New York delega- 
tion, however, appeared far from secure. Murphy was 
apathetic and one faction, at least, of Governor Hill's 
followers was using every conceivable means to discredit 
President Cleveland. For this purpose a scurrilous pam- 
phlet designed to operate in the interest of Governor 
Hill's presidential ambitions was printed and circulated 
in the convention. A more disgraceful collection of 
slanderous vituperation can scarcely be found, among 
the political pamphlets of our country, from Freneau and 
Callender down. 

"Cleveland, W. R. Grace and W. C. Whitney— A Pair 
of Thieves — How They Run the Administration and 



290 GROVER CLEVELAND 

Knife the Governor of the Empire State," runs the title. 
Throughout its eighteen almost unbelievably brutal pages 
one evident purpose runs: to glorify Hill, "our deliberate 
choice as our Democratic Chief," and the memory of 
the late John Kelly, "Tammany's greatest head," 'Vhom 
Grace and Whitney were still hounding in the last hours 
of his protracted fatal illness"; and to hold up to con- 
tumely President Grover Cleveland, "the Beast of 
Buffalo." 

But wisely disregarding the slanders of factional op- 
position, the placard "The Republican prayer — Renomi- 
nate Cleveland," and other bids for his defeat, the con- 
vention accepted the inevitable and nominated Grover 
Cleveland. So complete was his victory that no ballot 
was taken, the nomination being made by acclamation 
and without the appearance of a serious rival. 

When Lamont brought the news, he found the Presi- 
dent in his library looking over a set of textbooks designed 
for Indian children on government reservations. Mr. 
Cleveland glanced at the telegram, and turned again to 
his textbooks. Apparently the news excited him very 
little. He had felt certain of the result, and hardly 
needed to be told what had been formally enacted. Every 
vital detail of the convention had been carefully planned, 
and, barring accidents, the outcome had been assured in 
advance. Even the platform had been drawn by the 
President more than a week before the assembling of the 
convention, and his friends had been strong enough to 
secure its adoption, almost without change. 

According to P. J. Smalley, the well-known journalist, 
Mr. Cleveland connived with Senator Gorman to secure 
the passage of the tariff plank, whose wording he had 
made so clear as to constitute a direct refutation of Mr. 
Blaine's charge that Mr. Cleveland was a disciple of free 



THROWING AWAY THE PRESIDENCY 29 1 

trade. When the document was in exactly the form in 
which he desired it to appear in the platform, Mr. Cleve- 
land summoned Senator Gorman and gave it to him with 
the request that he see it through. Gorman, without re- 
vealing its authorship, showed it to Mr. Randall, who re- 
marked that it suited him but that "the Cleveland crowd 
would kick." Gorman said he thought he could manage 
them, and accordingly entered the convention, where the 
two labored to get it adopted. The resolution endorsing 
the Mills Bill, however, does not appear in President 
Cleveland's draft, and the evidence shows that he did not 
desire to see it included. Indeed, Senator Faulkner is 
responsible for the statement that the President strongly 
urged upon Senator Gorman the importance of having 
no such indorsement. 

The excitement of the conflict over. President Cleve- 
land viewed his success with no great personal satisfac- 
tion. He was fully conscious that his nomination had 
not come willingly from the Democratic politicians, but 
had been wrung from them by a combination of the popu- 
lar demand, the difficulty of repudiating a leader already 
entrenched, and the skillful maneuvering of his managers. 
But he was entitled to a glow of satisfaction at the remark- 
able enthusiasm with which the convention had done 
what he had planned, being blissfully unconscious that 
he had planned it all. 

In the Republican convention, which followed on 
June 19th, the striking feature was the listlessness with 
which the unexpected was done. Blaine had been con- 
fidently regarded as the nominee, but for some reason he 
insisted upon standing aside. In cable messages from 
Europe he repeatedly declined to allow his name to be 
used in connection with the nomination. Despite his ex- 
pressed wishes, however, on the first ballot he was seventh 



292 GROVER CLEVELAND 

in the list of nineteen candidates, John Sherman, Wal- 
ter Q. Gresham, Chauncey M. Depew, Russell A. Alger, 
and Benjamin Harrison leading him by large majorities. 
On the eighth ballot, Harrison, clearly the choice of the 
convention, was nominated by a rising vote, generously 
labeled unanimous, and thus Grover Cleveland faced 
not James G. Blaine, but a new leader, a human iceberg, 
as his associates called him. 

At first glance the chances for a Democratic victory 
seemed excellent, but the politically weatherwise, even 
within the Democratic ranks, knew better. Richard 
Croker expressed the belief that Harrison would be hard 
to beat, and intimated that, in view of this fact, he would 
"do absolutely as Washington wants" in the matter of a 
Democratic nomination for Governor of New York. 
Upon that subject the President still declined to express 
his desires. His New York political followers again be- 
sieged him to join with them in preventing Hill's nomi- 
nation. Ex-Mayor Grace threatened that if Hill were 
made the standard bearer he would bolt the ticket; and 
he added the opinion that D-Cady Herrick, Frederic R. 
Coudert, and many other prominent Cleveland Demo- 
crats would do the same. 

Again, Mr. Cleveland's reply was an unequivocal re- 
fusal to have anything to do with the matter. "I am 
surprised," he wrote, "that you should suppose that I 
ought to control or dictate the nomination in New York 
State. ... I am isolated here, full of public duties and 
at the same time much perplexed with political questions 
which are presented to me daily. ... A crises is upon 
us involving such immense considerations that they must 
occur to every thinking man, among which my personal 
defeat is insignificant. Judgment should rule the hour — 
carefully made up and uninfluenced by passion or preju- 



THROWING AWAY THE PRESIDENCY 293 

dice. The exercise of such judgment in the formation 
of tickets &c &c must be left to those in whose hands party 
organization has placed it. 

"I appreciate fully the very great value you and Mr. 
Herrick are in the canvass, and cannot but hope that, in 
view of the great interests at stake, you will be found 
supporting the result of the judgment of the Democracy 
of the State even if it should not be in line with your own. 
In the meantime I am willing to trust it and I must abide 
by it. I beg you to think of the depressing influence 
which will result throughout the country from any cool- 
ness or defection in the State of New York. Perhaps I 
need hardly add that I have absolutely and persistently 
declined to interfere or express an opinion respecting the 
subject of your letter." 

Three days later he wrote to Bissell: "I am deter- 
mined to let the Gubernatorial question alone, but I am 
surprised to hear quite a number of people who have been 
strongly against the Governor say that they think his 
nomination would be the safest and best one. Indeed I 
think as at present advised that if it was desired it would 
be very difficult to change the current in his favor for 
renomination — some of it arising from personal and polit- 
ical attachment, and some of it from motives of political 
expediency. There are a good many voters, I am sure, 
who would rather vote for him than anybody else, and 
a good many who would not vote for anyone else on 
our side." Thus, leaving the local organization of New 
York, as of all the other states, to solve local problems, 
the President faced his double task of Chief Executive 
and Presidential Candidate, a combination which told 
heavily upon his wonderful but much overtaxed consti- 
tution. He worked each night until two or three o'clock, 
and by nine each morning was again at his desk. 



294 GROVER CLEVELAND 

His letter of acceptance reasserted the tariff views of 
his recent message, while scornfully and indignantly re- 
pudiating the Republican accusation that he was tilting 
in the lists as a free trade idealist. In congratulating the 
President on this letter Governor Hill wrote : "I can give 
it no greater praise than to say it expresses yourself. 
... It is just what was needed at this time, and its pub- 
lication could not have been more opportune. Under 
the inspiration of this letter our state platform will confi- 
dently assure our friends throughout the Nation that New 
York will maintain her honorable place in the line of 
Democratic states." 

So far as Governor Hill's own prospects were con- 
cerned, this confident prediction was fully justified; but 
from the point of view of President Cleveland and the 
national ticket, the case was quite otherwise. His enemies, 
especially in New York, were again appealing to the 
Irish vote on the plea that President Cleveland was a 
British tool "employed by Ireland's cruel enemy to aid 
her work of enslavement." To this end his extradition 
treaty was distorted into a scheme for placing all the 
machinery of the government in this country at the serv- 
ice of England for the suppression of defection in Ireland. 
To this end he was depicted as the man who had sur- 
rendered "the rights of American fishermen at the bidding 
of Joseph Chamberlain," as unfair an interpretation of 
Mr. Cleveland's conduct of the fisheries disputes as hos- 
tile ingenuity could have devised. The facts were as 
follows : 

The controversy over the rights of American fishing 
vessels in Canadian waters and Canadian ports had been 
waged off and on ever since the foundation of the Gov- 
ernment. Disputes had been constant, and in 1886 two 
American vessels had been seized by Canadians. The 



THROWING AWAY THE PRESIDENCY 295 

Administration had made vigorous protests, characteriz- 
ing the course of Canadian officials in terms of severe 
rebuke, and demanding the fullest redress. Within our 
borders many were the threats of war with Canada. 

Had President Cleveland been less a patriot and 
statesman and more a demagogue and claptrap partisan, 
he would have met the issue, as the jingo policy of the 
period dictated, by an appeal to popular prejudice in the 
shape of prompt enforcement of non-intercourse and the 
possible disruption of peaceable relations with England. 
This would have disturbed commerce and trade; it would 
have spread distrust throughout the sensitive financial 
and business circles of the land, and it would have in- 
flicted a large measure of injury upon our own people, 
but it would have been called good politics. He had, 
however, preferred to avow his faith in the intelligence 
and integrity of the American people by presenting the 
issue to the nation and the world on the highest plane of 
statesmanship. 

He had, therefore, appointed a commission who, with 
the British commission, had drawn up a treaty which 
went far beyond any of the four former treaties between 
the two countries in conceding privileges to our fishing 
vessels, and was calculated to put an end to disputes and 
relieve the relations of the United States and Canada 
from their one source of danger. Regardless of conse- 
quences to the relations of the country with a friendly 
power, or to the vast commercial interests involved in 
those relations, the Senate, by a strict party vote, had not 
only rejected the treaty, but by the same party vote had 
refused to allow it to be amended to meet real or pre- 
tended objections. Their criticism was of the kind which, 
finding fault, proposes no improvement. They had hoped 
to discredit the President before the country as an Execu- 



296 GROVER CLEVELAND 

tive unable to procure the ratification of his treaty, and 
thus to end his career. 

The peaceful method of dealing with the question 
having failed of support, the President, determined as 
ever to uphold the honor of the nation and the rights of 
American citizens, had sent a message asking Congress 
for power to make a retaliatory war upon the industry 
of Canada. These were the facts in the case, and this 
the magnanimous and statesmanlike treatment of the 
situation which was interpreted to make the President 
"the confessed ally of England," and by analogy "the 
enemy of Ireland." 

But most iniquitous of all the attempts to make Grover 
Cleveland appear the tool of Great Britain, was the Sack- 
ville-West incident, staged long in advance of the cam- 
paign, and with unscrupulous cunning. On September 4, 
1888, a letter from Pomona, California, signed Charles F. 
Murchison, was addressed to the British Minister at j 
Washington, Sir Lionel Sackville-West, asking his opin- 
ion as to how a Britisher, loyal, though naturalized an 
American, ought to vote if desiring to serve England. 
With almost unbelievable folly, Sir Lionel took the bait, 
and, over his own signature, wrote to his fancied com- 
patriot that he held a favorable opinion of the friendly 
disposition of the Democratic party toward England. 

Fifteen days before the election, to the consternation 
of the Cleveland camp, the press published this corre- 
spondence, certain papers printing the British Minister's 
letter with a broad black mourning band around it. There 
followed a flood of comment regarding the President's 
duty in the premises. "If this letter is an audacious 
forgery," said the New York Sun, "Lord Sackville should 
denounce it as such without an hour's delay. If it is 
genuine, Mr. Bayard should send him his passports be- 



THROWING AWAY THE PRESIDENCY 297 

fore to-morrow night." This suggestion was laid before 
Lord Sackville by an enterprising Tribune reporter, who 
asked whether the letter was authentic, and if so whether 
his Lordship felt apprehensive of recall. Without hesi- 
tation the minister replied: "The man wrote me asking 
my advice ... as he had a perfect right to do. I an- 
swered him giving him my views upon the matter, as I 
had a right to do. ... I am not alarmed. . . . There 
has been so much said about me in the past that I have 
become indifferent to such comment. ... I have done 
nothing that is at all prejudicial to my position or that 
is in violation of any international custom or courtesy." 
With this point of view, Secretary Bayard apparently 
agreed, as, on October 24th, he telegraphed from George- 
town that if the much discussed letter were marked 
"private" the Government would not be justified in 
noticing it. 

The press, however, far from agreeing, insisted, in 
varied and picturesque language, that the offending min- 
ister must go. "It matters not," said the New York 
Times, "whether Lord Sackville is a fool or a knave; 
whether he was trapped, as he says, or whether he con- 
spired with the politicians to arouse national prejudice 
in a presidential contest," he should be dismissed. Mr. 
Cleveland, no less incensed than were his friends that 
the representative of a friendly power should give advice 
as to elections, intimated to Lord Salisbury that Sir Sack- 
ville-West should be recalled, and upon receiving no satis- 
faction, curtly dismissed the offending minister, thereby 
arousing not only his ire, but that of his government as 
well. But the mischief had been done. 

The autumn elections assured to the President the 
period of rest for which he had so often longed. Whitney 
brought the news of defeat. Entering the room where the 



298 GROVER CLEVELAND 

President and his young wife were awaiting the final 
verdict, he remarked : "Well, it's all up." Cleveland 
had received only 168 electoral votes out of 401, although 
his popular vote was almost a million larger than that of 
his successful rival. 

On the other hand, Hill was re-elected Governor of 
New York by a plurality of 19,171, although the Repub- 
lican candidate for President received, in the same state, 
a plurality of more than 14,000. This apparently un- 
natural discrepancy suggested to the minds of many 
Cleveland men the existence of a combination between 
Hill and the Republicans with a view to making more 
certain the elimination of Cleveland and the availability 
of Hill, in view of a future presidential campaign. Later, 
however, when heads were cool, they acknowledged the 
injustice of their inferences. 

Writing almost twenty years later, after Hill had 
retired from public life, and when Mr. Cleveland was 
nearing his end, St. Clair McKelway, anti-Hill though 
he had always been, bore public witness to the mature 
opinion that Hill did not betray Cleveland in 1888. 
"Something should be said now which could not, for 
want of knowledge of the inside facts, be said before," 
he wrote in a Brooklyn Eagle editorial, on December 10, 
1907. "Governor Hill was true to Mr. Cleveland in 
1888. Mr. Cleveland lost this state then because many 
German Republicans, who voted for General Harrison, 
also voted for Governor Hill, Democrat, to beat Warner 
Miller, Republican candidate for Governor, on account 
of the rigorous excise views which Warner Miller had 
expressed. The slump from Miller to Hill of German 
Republicans who were for Harrison, anyway, made the 
vote for Hill larger than for Cleveland, but Governor 
Hill, though he benefited by that fact, did not promote it, 



THROWING AWAY THE PRESIDENCY 299 

and did all he could to get everybody who voted for him 
to vote for Cleveland also." Doubtless the Germans who 
voted for Harrison did so with an added relish since it 
was Grover Cleveland who had resisted Bismarck's de- 
sign of annexing the Samoan Islands. 

To Mr. Cleveland's mind no inferential accusations 
were necessary to explain his defeat. He had deliberately 
chosen his battle ground, had followed the dictates of his 
conscience with the full knowledge of what such a course 
might mean to his political fortunes, and having been 
beaten, he spent no time in nursing suspicions. "After 
all," he remarked to C. S. Cary two days after the elec- 
tion, "I would rather have my name to that tariff measure 
than be President." 

From the moment of defeat he began to rally his fol- 
lowers for another conflict. "Temporary defeat," he 
wrote to the Massachusetts Tariff Reform Association, 
on December 24th, "brings no discouragement; it but 
proves the stubbornness of the forces of combined selfish- 
ness, and discloses how the people have been led astray 
and how great is the necessity of redoubled efforts. . . . 
In the track of reform are often found the dead hopes 
of pioneers and the despair of those who fall in the 
march. But there will be neither despair nor dead hopes 
in the path of tariff reform, nor shall its pioneers fail to 
reach the heights. Holding fast to their faith and reject- 
ing every alluring overture and every deceptive com- 
promise which would betray their sacred trust, they them- 
selves shall regain and restore the patrimony of their 
countrymen, freed from the trespass of grasping en- 
croachment." 

To other organizations he sent similar letters, urging 
above all systematic educational work to make the people 
understand the tariff issue. "The danger which we have 



300 GROVER CLEVELAND 

to guard against," he wrote to the American Tariff Re- 
form League, "is the misleading of our countrymen by 
specious theories, cunningly contrived, and falsely offer- 
ing the people relief from personal burdens and the legiti- 
mate expenses necessary to secure the benefits of benefi- 
cent rule under the sanction of free institutions. The 
declared purpose of your league will not be attained until 
all those instructed in the economic question which is 
now pressed upon their attention are freed from all soph- 
istries and clouding fallacies and until the subject of 
tariff reform is presented to them as a topic involving the 
relief of the plain people in their homes from useless 
and unjust expense." 

A few days after this letter was written, William B. 
Hornblower called at the White House to pay his respects 
to the defeated President. "I was asked into his private 
reception room," writes Mr. Hornblower, "and found 
him sitting at his desk alone. After a few words of 
greeting, he spoke of his tariff message, which seemed to 
be on his mind. He said: 'My friends all advised me not 
to send it in. They told me that it would hurt the party; 
that without it, I was sure to be re-elected, but that if I 
sent in that message to Congress, it would in all probabil- 
ity defeat me; that I could wait till after election and 
then raise the tariff question. I felt, however, that this 
would not be fair to the country; the situation as it ex- 
isted was to my mind intolerable and immediate action 
was necessary. Besides, I did not wish to be re-elected 
without having the people understand just where I stood 
on the tariff question and then spring the question on them 
after my re-election. He paused a moment and then 
added, as if speaking to himself: 'Perhaps I made a mis- 
take from the party standpoint; but damn it, it was right,' 



THROWING AWAY THE PRESIDENCY 301 

and he brought his fist down on his desk, 'I have at least 
that satisfaction.' 

" Tes,' said I, 'Mr. President, it was right, and I want 
to say to you, that not only was it right, but that the 
young men of the country are with you and four years 
from now, we mean to put you back in the White 
House.' " 



CHAPTER XII 

RETIRES TO NEW YORK 

"I have just entered the real worldj. and see in a small child 
more of value than I have ever called my own." 

— Grover Cleveland. 

THE last months of President Cleveland's first term, 
like those of every defeated President, were tedious 
and difficult. The gloom of defeat was upon his fol- 
lowers; his enemies were little disposed to consider a 
discredited leader, as they chose to designate him; the 
people, a majority of whom had voted for him, had their 
faces turned toward the rising sun; and foreign nations 
approached him convinced that his day of power was 
forever gone. 

England, in particular, resentful of the dismissal of 
Sir Sackville-West, made no attempt to conceal the fact 
that she was waiting, none too patiently, for the coming 
of another President, and was meanwhile content to leave 
American questions in the hands of a charge, Michael H. 
Herbert, Second Secretary of Legation. Under these cir- 
cumstances the American Minister at London, the Hon- 
orable J. E. Phelps, could not but feel the impropriety of 
his position. Frequent dinners of farewell were given 
him by well-intending friends who assumed that his stay 
would of necessity be brief, and that America, too, would 
place a subordinate in charge of her affairs. At last, on 
January 7th, he was granted leave of absence, at his own 
earnest request, and sailed for America, with no intention 

of returning. Secretary Bayard, while somewhat reluc- 

302 



RETIRES TO NEW YORK 303 

tantly consenting to Mr. Phelps's retirement, declined to 
accept his interpretation of the British attitude, stoutly 
insisting that England had meant no slight when failing 
to fill Sir Sackville's post. "I am most unwilling to be- 
lieve," he wrote to Endicott, "that Lord Salisbury would 
sneakingly attempt to inflict a slight and yet seek to con- 
ceal from its recipient a knowledge of what was intended. 
The lion is the king of beasts, but such a course would 
reduce the British lion to the dimensions of a jackal." 
Whatever the motive, however, the fact was clear that 
Sir Sackville was not to be replaced so long as Mr. Cleve- 
land remained in office. Like the rest, the British lion 
was waiting for the rising sun. In view of such condi- 
tions, it is strange that the American people have not long 
ago insisted upon a change which would release a retir- 
ing President and establish his successor within a reason- 
able time after the results of the election are known. 

Upon the purely personal and domestic side, the task 
of leaving the White House involved the Cleveland fam- 
ily in many peculiar obligations. The household must 
remain until a definite hour, fixed by a combination of 
precedent and constitutional enactment, and be then ready 
to hand over the Executive Mansion to the Harrison 
family and a host of guests waiting to celebrate a new 
social era. 

Before this hour provision had to be made for the 
disposition of the extraordinary collection of personal 
presents which had arrived at the White House during 
Mr. Cleveland's term of service. Although he had de- 
clined all gifts of intrinsic value, and returned many of 
little account, the attic was nevertheless filled with an 
odd assortment of strangely varied character. There were 
photographs by the thousands, including scores of pic- 
tures of presidential namesakes, and hundreds of other 



304 GROVER CLEVELAND 

baby pictures sent because it was known that Mr. Cleve- 
land loved children. The slaughter of these innocents 
which the move made necessary was a task in itself. 

There were gallons of patent medicines and lotions; 
luck stones, rabbits' feet and other mascots en gros; bed 
quilts, sofa cushions, table covers, mats, and scarfs. There 
were boxes of cigars, sent with the best of intentions; 
baby's first teeth, baby's first shoes; fishing rods, flies, 
reels, sinkers, hooks and lines — every article ever dreamed 
of by Sir Izaak Walton or any of his spiritual descendants. 
There was a veritable arsenal of firearms, with cartridges, 
hunting belts, stool pigeons, and game baskets. There 
were manuscripts in prose, verse, and the reverse — of the 
latter an unbelievable mass; rhymes that could raise the 
goose-flesh upon the most seasoned editor, in which "the 
Caesar of all the world" and "his fair, modern Helen" 
sported together "on sylvan pleasures bent," and without 
the least regard for the rules of the game, either as to 
meter, rhyme, rhythm, or the sacred rights of chronology. 
There was "a piece of gold dug up in Michigan," accom- 
panied by a frank request that, upon receipt of it, the 
President would wire an offer for the land from which 
it came. The nugget was dusty with age^ but the tele- 
gram was still unwritten. There was a rusty horseshoe, 
marked "please except"; and a shining silver-plated one 
from a winning foot of the famous racer, Nancy Hanks. 
There was "a genuine Virginia madstone"; a large tank- 
ard of "mad dog medicine" carefully inscribed "a remedy 
for internal fever, it is Plesen to Drink no bad tast"; and 
a dozen bottles of tempting "home made liniment." There 
was "a Panel painted in oil subject being roses," with a 
string attached in the shape of the following suggestion: 
"You might feel like sending me $100 and we will be 
quits." An admirer in Utah had contributed "a suit of 



RETIRES TO NEW YORK 305 

endowment garments such as are worn by the High 
Priests of the Mormon Church." 

All told there remained, to be disposed of, over three 
thousand presents, from the good and the great, the less 
good and the less great, and not a few from the great 
unknown who loved him and trusted him and who had 
taken their own peculiar methods of showing it. And 
in the midst of all these strange symbols of affection, or 
of ambition for office, standing as a painful reminder of 
the vanishing qualities of human greatness, was a noble 
bust of President Garfield done in soap. 

At Oak View, the President's private country house 
outside of Washington, was a different kind of collection. 
There he had spent his summers since 1886, a couple of 
weeks only of each having been devoted to fishing and 
hunting in the Adirondacks; and thither his admirers had 
sent an odd assortment of living treasures. There were 
"two baby foxes," now no longer babies. There had 
been some white rats which had borne fruit after their 
kind; but one had bitten the finger of the first lady of the 
land, and all had shared his banishment. A youthful 
admirer had donated an Angora kitten; but it had long 
ago disappeared, having fallen over the banisters and 
broken its leg, thereby necessitating the simultaneous sac- 
rifice of all nine of its lives. There were a dachshund, a 
French poodle, and a St. Bernard, which had partaken 
somewhat of the natures of their respective countries — 
the beagle and the French poodle continually drifting into 
war, and the neutral St. Bernard invariably intervening. 
There had come also a fine setter; but he had been re- 
turned to the giver with the characteristic explanation 
that, as a President has little time for hunting, to keep 
him "would not be fair to the dog." 

Upon one occasion a sporting acquaintance sent a flock 



306 GROVER CLEVELAND 

of quail; and the President devoted much care to the 
construction of an elaborate pen for their accommodation, 
hoping that henceforth he could enjoy the whistle which 
brought back so many happy memories of dog and gun. 
By an error of judgment, however, the mesh of the wire 
selected was too large, and as soon as the birds were 
placed within, there came a familiar whir of wings, and 
the presidential carpenter, in speechless wrath, watched 
his hopes vanish in the distance, to seek for themselves a 
freer, if a less distinguished habitation. 

With the exception of the foxes, such of these treas- 
ures as survived to the end of his term were carefully 
crated and marked "Grover Cleveland, Hotel Victoria, 
New York City," where Mr. Cleveland had engaged a 
commodious apartment on the second floor to serve as 
home until long-coveted leisure should enable him to 
select a private residence. 

On the night before his retirement from the White 
House Mr. Cleveland heard the surging crowds pass and 
repass his doors, singing and shouting their comments 
upon the President who to-morrow would pass into ob- 
livion. Again and again, from thousands of lusty throats, 
floated the popular refrain: ''Grover's in the cold, cold 
ground." But he w^as thinking little of his departure. 
He was thinking rather of the freedom that awaited him. 
The defeat he refused to consider his defeat. "It is 
not a personal matter," he told a New York Herald 
reporter. "It is not proper to speak of it either as my 
victory or as my defeat. It was a contest between two 
great parties battling for the supremacy of certain well- 
defined principles. One party has won and the other has 
lost — that is all there is to it." 

Furthermore, he cherished no bitterness toward Gov- 
ernor Hill, no tendency to agree with those who accused 



RETIRES TO NEW YORK 307 

Hill of treachery to the head of his party. When asked 
by a reporter to what cause he attributed the loss of New 
York, he replied, with a smile: "It was mainly because 
the other party had the most votes." But gravely and 
with evident conviction, he added : "I have not the slight- 
est doubt of Governor Hill's absolute good faith and 
honesty in the canvass. Nothing has ever occurred to 
interrupt our kindly relations since we ran on the ticket 
together as Governor and Lieutenant Governor." 

Arrived in New York, Mr. Cleveland resumed the 
practice of the law, as a member of the distinguished firm, 
Bangs, Stetson, Tracy, and MacVeagh. Here he again 
exhibited the indifference to fees which had so often 
astonished his earlier law partner, Wilson S. Bissell. 
"I am now closing up a case of Cleveland's which has 
been running for years," Bissell once wrote to a friend, 
"during all which time he has paid all disbursements, 
such as costs of entry, witness fees, etc., out of his own 
pocket, because the man was too poor to meet these neces- 
sary expenses." And he often remarked that the ex-Presi- 
dent deserved no praise for incorruptibility in office since 
money had never had power to tempt him. 

This indifference was not due to that "private fortune 
brought from the White House" of which the newspapers 
so often spoke; for Mr. Cleveland left the executive office 
little richer than he had entered it. He had saved a 
little — the New York Sun later kindly fixed the amount at 
$25,000 a year — but he had not multiplied these savings, 
as he might readily have done, by particularly fortunate 
investments, for he refused to speculate or even to hold 
stocks concerning which he had any special knowledge, 
feeling, as he often said, that "a man is apt to know too 
much in my position that might affect matters in the least 
speculative." 



3o8 GROVER CLEVELAND 

It is quite possible that he would have fared worse, 
however, had he been less scrupulous; for he had not 
the gift of prophecy which makes a successful speculator, 
and was by no means skillful in questions of stocks and 
bonds. At times he was singularly childlike in his re- 
quests for specific directions as to how to sell certain 
stocks, frankly pleading lack of understanding of such 
matters. On one occasion he wrote to Commodore Bene- 
dict, his chief adviser in regard to private investments: 
"If you and I were speculators instead of steady-going 
investors, I think I would suggest that one of us buy a 
moderate amount of something, and having thus pre- 
pared the way for a decline, that the other sell a large 
quantity of the same thing short, and divide the profits. 
It must be that such a scheme would work." But he never 
bought on margin, always insisting that what was pur- 
chased for him should be paid for in full. 

His return to the bar, after four years in the White 
House, was not a mere pretense. Politics had not lifted 
for him the curse of Cain, and work was not a pastime, 
but a necessity. 

The leisure to which he had looked forward long and 
eagerly proved far from leisurely. The stern sense of 
duty which had been so heavy a taskmaster in the White 
House did not relax its grip, and his life in New York 
was almost puritanical in its rigid, laborious simplicity. 
A walk downtown in the early morning was his only 
regular exercise, almost his only diversion, for he declined 
to learn golf, studiously avoided dinners — especially such 
as seemed likely to involve his pet abhorrence, after- 
dinner speaking — and regarded the theater as an indul- 
gence to be but sparingly enjoyed. 

In the autumn of 1889, after his usual fishing trip in 
the Adirondacks, he established himself at 816 Madison 



RETIRES TO NEW YORK 309 

Avenue, living, like St. Paul, in "his own hired house," 
as he expressed it. He reveled in his home, the first un- 
official one he had ever possessed, played cribbage to his 
heart's content, and enjoyed his friends as he had never 
been able to enjoy them. He was enthusiastic about New 
York as a place of residence, and when he received from 
Chicago friends an urgent invitation to make his perma- 
nent home in that city he replied: 

"I beg you to remember that I too have a State and 
City — great in their progress and achievements — imperial 
in their standing among American States and Cities, and 
grand in their history and traditions. I have spent my 
life since early boyhood in the State of New York. I 
have stood at the head of her State Government. I am 
now happy and contented as a resident of the City of 
New York, and am daily the grateful recipient of the 
kindness and consideration of her citizens. You have a 
wonderful City and I am glad that the people of Chicago 
cannot monopolize the pride, due to every American, 
arising from her prosperity and growth. But New York 
State and New York City are very dear to me and I 
should not know how to entertain the thought of living 
elsewhere. 

"I have made an unnecessarily long response to what 
was intended as merely a kind expression. I should like 
to say a word in reply to what you write in regard to the 
'favorite son.' I will resist the temptation and only say 
that whatever the State of New York does will be rightly 
done. In all circumstances you and I can congratulate 
ourselves and each other on being residents of the great- 
est Cities our Country can boast, on being citizens of the 
grandest land on Earth, and on belonging to a party which 
seeks to protect the rights and further the prosperity and 
happiness of the American people." 



3IO GROVER CLEVELAND 

■ Satisfied with his life and work, Mr. Cleveland gave 
no indication of a desire to enter again into the turmoil 
of politics; although from the first his political followers 
set themselves the task of keeping him before the country, 
with a view to a renomination in 1892. "I am," he wrote 
to L. Clarke Davis, "in a miserable condition — a private 
citizen without political ambition, trying to do private 
work, and yet pulled and hauled and importuned daily 
and hourly to do things in a public and semi-public way 
which are hard and distasteful to me. I have never made 
a speech or written a letter except in compliance with 
importunities which I could not resist from those engaged 
in some good work, or from those entitled to claim my 
consideration on party grounds. To refuse, as I am 
obliged to, the many requests presented to me is as wear- 
ing and as perplexing as it was to refuse applications for 
office at Washington. . . . I of ten have a pretty blue time 
of it, and confess to frequent spells of resentment, but I 
shall get on in a fashion." 

When forced to speak, he refused to heed the advice 
of his political friends constantly urging caution, and 
fearlessly declared his convictions. While Governor Hill 
was meditatively balancing the popularity of free silver, 
Grover Cleveland was alarming his supporters by frankly 
and unequivocally denouncing it upon every proper occa- 
sion. And when warned that the nomination was coming 

and that Hill had ambitions, he replied: "D the 

nomination. I will say what I think is right." 

He made no attempt to defend his stewardship as 
President; presented no excuses, no apologies, beyond the 
simple statement: "No man can lay down the trust which 
he has held in behalf of a generous and confiding people, 
and feel that at all times he has met in the best possible 
way the requirements of his trust; but he is not derelict 



RETIRES TO NEW YORK 311 

in duty if he has conscientiously devoted his efforts and 
his judgments to the people's service." He knew that he 
had performed his public duties faithfully, uncongenial 
as many of them had been. He had neither faltered be- 
fore duty, quailed before threats, nor fallen captive to the 
enervating whisper, the politician's Lorelei, "This will 
be popular." 

Early in October, 1889, when the Democratic Society 
of Pennsylvania pleaded with him to address their first 
general assembly, he declined. His simple letter of re- 
gret, however, was used, in lieu of the desired address, 
to arouse political enthusiasm for the "brave and stainless 
leader" who had suffered "electoral defeat" in the face 
of "moral and popular victory." The chairman of the 
meeting, Chauncey F. Black, painted an inspiring picture 
of this champion of the masses, this challenger of the 
classes, "cut down by venal treachery . . . and over- 
whelmed by the tide of monopoly's corruption." And he 
brought the assembly to its feet with the words : "We are 
for tariff reform. From the high ground to which our 
great captain led us last year, we will not retreat one 
inch." 

In December Mr. Cleveland made his first address of 
large political importance since his retirement from the 
Presidency. It was delivered at a dinner of the Mer- 
chants' Association of Boston, to over four hundred 
business men assembled to honor the ex-President. A 
Republican, Governor Ames, sounded the keynote in the 
sentence : "If wicked Democrats speak as well of me when 
I retire from office as Republicans now do of you, I shall 
be abundantly satisfied," while James Russell Lowell's 
letter of regret expressed the feeling of the guests with 
the unerring instinct of a man of genius: 



312 GROVER CLEVELAND 

Elmwood, Cambridge, Mass. 

lOth Dec. i88q. 
Dear Mr. Quincy : 

I regret very much that I cannot have the pleasure of 
joining with you in paying respect to a man so worthy 
of it as Mr. Cleveland. 

Let who has felt compute the strain 
Of struggle with abuses strong, 
The doubtful course, the helpless pain 
Of seeing best intents go wrong; 
We, who look on with critic eyes 
Exempt from action's crucial test, 
Human ourselves, at least are wise 
In honoring one who did his best. 
Faithfully yours, 

J. R. Lowell. 
JosiAH Quincy, Esq. 

The choice of the subject for his own address, ballot 
reform, had, as usual, caused Mr. Cleveland many rest- 
less hours; its preparation had given him many wretched 
days. But its reception at the hands of this distinguished 
non-partisan company fully compensated for all. 

As we read the address to-day, it is difficult to under- 
stand how so commonplace a production could have made 
so striking an impression upon such an audience. But 
this was doubtless due in part to the personal popularity 
of the speaker, and to the skill with which he was staged 
by men far more anxious than he regarding this politi- 
cally planned non-political appearance, this camouflaged 
opening gun in a campaign to make Mr. Cleveland, for 
a third time, the Democratic nominee for President. Mr. 
Cleveland, said Andrew Carnegie in the closing address 



RETIRES TO NEW YORK 313 

of the meeting, has "demonstrated one answer to a ques- 
tion of his own asking, — what to do with ex-Presidents. 
He has shown that one good thing to do with them is to 
invite them to all banquets; and in this connection the 
question occurs to me — why not run them again?" 

Although this idea now began to be widely discussed, 
Mr. Cleveland himself rather discouraged than wel- 
comed it. Living in the metropolis of the nation, close 
to the most powerful of all Democratic machines, he 
rarely met its leaders, and never cultivated them. His 
mind was upon the people, and his appeals were to public 
opinion through infrequent addresses and personal letters. 
He sought to influence public opinion, not to use it. He 
was willing to serve the nation should the nation call, but 
was determined not to "consent to be the candidate unless 
on a basis of honest principle." He would not accept 
leadership at the hands of machine men. 

But though indifferent to the praise or blame of poli- 
ticians, the letters of appreciation from admirers, known 
or unknown, which came in quantities from every section 
of the country, pleased him enormously, and his appre- 
ciation took the effective form of an answer to each, writ- 
ten in his own hand. To friends who protested against 
such an apparently useless expenditure of energy he re- 
plied: "If a fellow takes the trouble to write to me, the 
least I can do is to answer him." 

In the early autumn the Albany Argus published an 
interview with Mr. Cleveland which made it abundantly 
clear that the ex-President must be regarded as perma- 
nently enlisted in the fight for tarifif reform, ballot reform, 
civil service reform, and all other reforms calculated to 
relieve "the positive distress daily threatening our peo- 
ple's homes under the operation of a new and iniquitous 
tariff law," and other "reckless enactments which stifle 



314 GROVER CLEVELAND 

the results of the people's suffrage." "The party that 
knew no discouragement in 1888," he concluded, "will 
not waver nor falter in 1890." This statement greatly 
cheered the hearts of his followers, for they knew that, 
after giving it forth, Grover Cleveland would not himself 
waver nor falter if asked to lead the greater fight of 1892. 

The November elections showed a tremendous drift 
back to Democracy, in the East as well as in the West, 
although the western victories were so associated with 
the Farmers' Alliance movement as to be difficult of in- 
terpretation in the terms of Democrat and Republican. 
Many skillful political prophets denied indeed that they 
pointed to Democratic victory in 1892, unless the Demo- 
cratic party should adopt the cherished schemes of the 
Alliance. In the East, however, the interpretation was 
clear. Here the fight had been won upon the policies 
of Grover Cleveland : tariff reform, civil service reform, 
economy, sound money, opposition to Federal subsidies 
and to improper interference in local affairs. "Reckon- 
ing on the result of the last November election," com- 
mented one pro-Cleveland paper, "the Democrats have 
75 electoral votes east of Pennsylvania. They carried 
Connecticut, with its 6 electoral votes, Massachusetts 
with its 15 . . . New Hampshire with its 4, New Jersey 
with its 10 . . . New York with 36 votes, and Rhode 
Island with 4." The conclusion was obvious: as the 
East, in 1890, voted for Democrats because of Cleveland 
policies, she could be relied upon to vote for them in 1892, 
if Cleveland should be the nominee. The South could, 
of course, be counted upon, whoever was nominated. The 
only question, therefore, was — what of the West? 

While pleased with election returns in general, Mr. 
Cleveland was uncertain concerning Governor Hill's 
wing of the Democracy, and how New York would inter- 



RETIRES TO NEW YORK 315 

pret her duty in the pending contest for United States 
Senator which would show how far Hill was justified in 
his evident ambition to be the Democratic presidential 
nominee in 1892. "Of one thing you may be entirely cer- 
tain," he wrote Bissell. "Hill and his friends are bent 
on his nomination for the Presidency, and failing in that, 
they are determined that it shall not come towards me. 
You know how I feel about this matter as a personal 
question; but if I have pulled any chestnuts out of the fire 
I want those who take them to keep civil tongues in their 
heads; and further . . . I don't want to see my hard work 
wasted and the old party fall back to shiftlessness and 
cheap expediency." 

Mr. Cleveland was of the opinion that Hill's nomina- 
tion would mean an end of the reforms toward which he 
himself had worked as President. The more carefully 
he considered the meaning of the senatorial contest in 
New York, the more thoroughly was he convinced that 
Hill ought not to be allowed to control it. On Novem- 
ber 17th he wrote to Bissell: "What a glorious thing it 
would be if you could be elected to the Senate. I have 
been sounding about on the subject and find this to be 
the present condition of the thing: It is conceded in all 
quarters which my inquiries have reached, that Hill 
positively controls the situation. The gains in Legisla- 
tive representation are mostly here and in Brooklyn. The 
members from these two localities can, if united, control 
the caucus within a vote or two, which of course they 
can easily obtain. I have not seen Weed at all, but I hear 
that he started in the canvass upon the supposition that 
Hill was pledged to his candidacy. This I believe is not 
now Hill's position; but instead of openly helping him 
he is fighting off, as I think, to pledge Weed and such 
friends as he has to his [Hill's] schemes. Some think 



3l6 GROVER CLEVELAND 

that the result of the recent elections will cause Hill to 
turn his eyes toward the senatorship for himself as the 
best thing he can now see in sight." 

But increasingly prominent as his political interest of 
necessity became, month by month, in view of elections 
which passed upon his policies, his chief delight was still 
his home and his family. This fact is avowed in his reply 
to the wedding invitation of a friend, John Temple 
Graves : 

My dear Mr. Graves : 

We received the card of invitation to your wedding a 
day or two ago, and I am glad that your letter — received 
only a few hours — justifies me, on behalf of my dear 
wife and myself, to do more than formally notice the 
occasion; and, first of all, let me assure you how much 
we appreciate the kind and touching sentiment you con- 
vey to us in our married state. 

As I look back upon the years that have passed since 
God in his infinite goodness bestowed upon me the best 
of all his gifts — a loving and affectionate wife — all else, 
honor, the opportunity of usefulness, and the esteem of 
my fellow countrymen, are subordinated in every aspira- 
tion of gratitude and thankfulness. 

You are not wrong, therefore, when you claim, in the 
atmosphere of fast coming bliss which now surrounds 
you, kinship with one who can testify with unreserved 
tenderness to the sanctification which comes to man when 
heaven-directed love leads the way to marriage. Since 
this tender theme has made us kinsmen, let me wish for 
you and the dear one who is to make your life doubly dear 
to you, all the joy and happiness vouchsafed to man. 

You will, I know, feel that your kind wishes can reach 
no greater sincerity and force than when my wife joins 



RETIRES TO NEW YORK 317 

me in the fervent desire that you and your bride may 
enter upon and enjoy the same felicity which has made 
our married life "one grand, sweet song." 
Very truly your friend, 

Grover Cleveland. 

Most men begin the new year with good resolutions, 
and it seems likely that Mr. Cleveland faced the dawn of 
1 89 1 with the resolution to do his duty by way of speech 
making. Otherwise, it is difficult to see why, in view of 
his oft-repeated declaration to intimate and confidential 
friends that he did not wish to be nominated again for 
the Presidency, he consented to begin the new year with 
a political speech. 

It was delivered in Philadelphia on the eighth of 
January, at the annual celebration of the Battle of New 
Orleans, and was one of his ablest addresses, breathing 
throughout that high moral standard which had charac- 
terized his own public life. It was, moreover, a cam- 
paign document of no mean character, calculated to 
appeal to the party pride of Democrats, and to rally them 
to the defense of the great reforms for which his name 
stood. In it, in one compact and illuminating paragraph, 
he recited as the principles of true democracy: "equal 
and exact justice for all men ; peace, commerce and honest 
friendship with all nations — entangling alliance with 
none; the support of the State governments in all their 
rights; the preservation of the general government in its 
whole constitutional vigor; a jealous care of the right of 
election by the people; absolute acquiescence in the de- 
cisions of the majority; the supremacy of the civil over 
the military authority; economy in the public expenses; 
the honest payment of our debts and sacred preservation 
of the public faith; the encouragement of agriculture, 



31 8 GROVER CLEVELAND 

and commerce as its handmaid, and freedom of religion, 
freedom of the press, and freedom of the person." 

The remainder of the address was an elaboration of 
each of these principles from the history of the two 
parties: the Democrats being painted — but not too shame- 
lessly — as having in general observed them; while the 
Republicans, having in general disregarded them, were 
now listening "for the footsteps of that death which 
destroys parties false to their trust." "Thus," he de- 
clared, "when we see the functions of government used 
to enrich the few at the expense of the many, and see 
also its inevitable result in the pinching privation of the 
poor and the profuse extravagance of the rich; and when 
we see in operation an unjust tariff which banishes from 
many humble homes the comforts of life, in order that in 
the palaces of wealth luxury may more abound, we turn 
to our creed and find that it enjoins 'equal and exact jus- 
tice to all men.' " 

Of course no one could be really eloquent in a sen- 
tence of such length and complexity; but the speech 
represents near-eloquence and in some passages, weeded 
of the usual Clevelandesque verbiage, we catch the gleam 
of real eloquence. It is so with the brilliant sub-title, 
"principles enduring because they are right, and invin- 
cible because they are just." It is so with the paragraph 
which declares: "It is right that every man should enjoy 
the results of his labor to the fullest extent consistent with 
his membership in a civilized community. It is right 
that our Government should be but the instrument of the 
people's will, and that its cost should be limited within 
the lines of strict economy. It is right that the influence 
of the Government should be known in every humble 
home as the guardian of frugal comfort and content, and 
a defense against unjust exactions, and the unearned 



RETIRES TO NEW YORK 319 

tribute persistently coveted by the selfish and designing. 
It is right that efficiency and honesty in public service 
should not be sacrificed to partisan greed; and it is right 
that the suffrage of our people should be pure and free." 

In February, 1891, there came one of those choices 
between principle and expediency which always showed 
Mr. Cleveland at his best. The situation was typical of 
his career. The question had arisen as to what response 
he should make to an invitation of the Reform Club to 
attend a banquet at which the free coinage of silver was 
to be attacked. Most of his advisers thought he should 
keep silent on the subject, lest the chance of his nomina- 
tion be injured. To these Mr. Cleveland's reply was 
characteristic : "I am supposed to be a leader in my party. 
If any word of mine can check these dangerous fallacies, 
it is my duty to give that word, whatever the cost may 
be to me." 

He, therefore, used the occasion to denounce the free 
silver bill then pending before the Senate, and believed to 
be favored by almost every Democratic Senator, and by 
the great doubtful West. His letter, which Charles 
Francis Adams pronounced "one of the most creditable 
utterances that ever came from an American public char- 
acter," reads as follows: 

February 10, l8gi, 

E. Ellery Anderson, Chairman : 
Dear Sir: 

I have this afternoon received your note inviting me 
to attend tomorrow evening the meeting called for the 
purpose of voicing the opposition of the business men of 
our city to "the free coinage of silver in the United 
States." 

I shall not be able to attend and address the meeting 



320 GROVER CLEVELAND 

as you request, but I am glad that the business interests 
of New York are at last to be heard on this subject. It 
surely cannot be necessary for me to make a formal ex- 
pression of my agreement with those who believe that the 
greatest peril would be invited by the adoption of the 
scheme, embraced in the measure now pending in Con- 
gress, for the unlimited coinage of silver at our mints. 

If we have developed an unexpected capacity for the 
assimilation of a largely increased volume of this cur- 
rency, and even if we have demonstrated the usefulness 
of such an increase, these conditions fall far short of 
insuring us against disaster if, in the present situation, 
we enter upon the dangerous and reckless experiment of 
free, unlimited, and independent silver coinage. 
Yours very truly, 

Grover Cleveland. 

At once the cry went up from Democratic machine 
men all over the country that this was the end of Grover 
Cleveland. Hill's friends hastened to call the attention 
of "real Democrats" to the fact that, months before. Gov- 
ernor Hill had declared for free coinage. The greatest 
indignation was manifested throughout the South and 
West, where faith in free silver was large and increasing. 
The more conservative East, however, applauded his wis- 
dom and praised his courage. "It matters not," com- 
mented the Philadelphia Daily Evening Telegram, 
"whether such a man be of one party or another. It is 
enough that he is an American statesman to whom the 
welfare of the country is greater, more important, than 
self." 

When a friend, years later, commented upon Mr. 
Cleveland's courage in thus defying the clamor of the free 
silver element in his own party in the face of a presiden- 



RETIRES TO NEW YORK 32 1 

tial election in which he was to be a candidate, Mr. Cleve- 
land replied : "It does not begin to be as hard as the stand 
I had to take, years ago, in Albany, relative to the five- 
cent fare bill. I vetoed the bill and felt I had driven 
the last nail into my political coffin." 

The denunciations had not ceased when, in the sum- 
mer, he retired to Gray Gables for the quiet out-of-door 
life which he loved; and from this calm retreat he wrote 
to Gilder: "How little and frivolous all this seems to 
me! Not because I do not realize the importance of 
everything in the remotest way connected with the great 
office of President, but because they appear to be indices 
of the meanness and malice of men and politicians. So 
all this time I am wondering when the bluefish will be 
about and biting." 

He kept a very watchful eye upon the anti-Cleveland 
movement, nevertheless, and his comments upon Hill, 
Sheehan, Tammany Hall, and the rest of the local "gang" 
were frankly pugilistic, as he watched their clever schemes 
for his own elimination, and for the defeat of the policies 
which he advocated. 

On July 3d, he wrote to Lamont: "My only thought 
about politics is that we are great fools if we allow our- 
selves to be hauled about by Hill and his gang. I know 
that I, who am doing next to nothing to prevent such a 
condition, ought not to expect others to inordinately exert 
themselves ; but I do hope the thing will not be neglected 
so long as the pins will be fixed fast and strong against 
us. My information and my belief is, that Tammany 
Hall will not aid us. They don't like me — never did and 
never will — and they will not help any movement with 
which my name is associated. Of course you know I am 
ready to take my discharge papers and be very obedient 
and faithful — except in one contingency." That contin- 



322 GROVER CLEVELAND 

gency, which seemed to him at the moment impossible, 
was a nomination which would leave him free to serve 
the people without any sense of obligation to seekers after 
spoils. 

On October 8th, a great Democratic mass meeting 
was held in Cooper Union, New York. Mr. Cleveland 
had been prevailed upon to preside, and introduce Gov- 
ernor Hill and other Democratic notables. The audience 
was large, so large that the elated managers expressed the 
regret that they had not taken Madison Square Garden. 
Mr. Cleveland's appearance was greeted with a tremen- 
dous ovation; and his brief introductory address, full of 
caustic references to the Republican party and somewhat 
unblushing praise for the Democrats, whom his private 
letters of late had not praised over much, was enthusi- 
astically received. It was the speech of a man who, after 
heavy trials, sees the people at last turning their faces 
back to him, and it was effective. 

"Never has the irresistible strength of the principles 
of Democracy been more fully exemplified," he said. 
"From the west and from the east come tidings of vic- 
tory. In the popular branch of the next Congress, the 
party which lately impudently arrogated to itself the 
domination of that body will fill hardly more than one 
fourth of its seats. Democratic governors occupy the 
enemy's strongholds in Iowa, Massachusetts, Ohio, Wis- 
consin, and Michigan. In Pennsylvania the election of a 
Democratic governor presents conclusive proof of Re- 
publican corruption exposed, and Republican dishonesty 
detected." He also touched upon tariff reform, making 
it perfectly clear that, if Grover Cleveland were coming 
back, he would come, like the ancient Roman Sibyl, with- 
out abating one jot or one tittle of the demands which had 
been his political undoing in 1888. 



RETIRES TO NEW YORK 323 

But the thought of coming back was little in his mind 
those days. Five days before the Cooper Union meet- 
ing, his first child, Ruth, was born, and the glory of her 
advent completely dwarfed all else. 

"The house is perfectly quiet," he wrote to Bissell, 
on October 21st. "I have just been up, to find my wife 
and child sleeping, and the nurse too. Only our mother- 
in-law awake. 

"I feel an impulse to write to you. And I feel, too, 
that unless I make an effort, I shall write in a strange 
fashion to you. I who have just entered the real world, 
and see in a small child more of value than I have ever 
called my own before; who puts aside as hardly worth a 
thought, all that has gone before — fame, honor, place, 
everything — reach out my hand to you and fervently ex- 
press ths wish — the best my great friendship for you yields 
— that in safety and in joy you may soon reach my estate. 

"I think a great deal about you and your dear wife 
just now. I think a little of your anxiety and suspense, a 
little of the cloud that must pass over her, but a great 
deal of the joy and happiness that will come to both of 
you when anxiety and suspense are over and the cloud is 
past. 

"Give our love to Mrs. Bissell and let me know when 
you are made happy. 

"Yours faithfully, 

Grover Cleveland." 



CHAPTER XIII 

AN UNPRECEDENTED RESTORATION 

"It's a funny thing for a man to be running for the Presi- 
dency with all the politicians against him." 

— Grover Cleveland. 

AS Grover Cleveland watched the winter deepen 
toward the Christmas season, his thoughts were less 
than usual thoughts of peace and good will. Reluctantly 
he had reached the conclusion that David B. Hill was 
wrecking the Democratic party by his methods in New 
York. "Hill's performances in Albany and the late pro- 
ceedings of the State Committee," he wrote to Bissell on 
December 4th, ". . . convince me that we are either rush- 
ing to overwhelming defeat or the people are heedless of 
everything political that may happen. Was it for this 
that we braved temporary defeat in order that we might 
stand on principle? And what becomes of all our fine 
promises to the people? If we have much more of the 
work that is now disgracing us and the people do not 
resent it, I shall think the people are not worth saving 
or serving." And a week later he added: "I have every 
possible desire to see our party succeed on decent honest 
lines, and have a strong disinclination to being exhibited 
at the tail end of a procession which means the betrayal 
of the principles we profess and the deception of the peo- 
ple. It seems very ridiculous for the State of New York 
to claim any sympathy with the professed aims of the 
National Democracy, and to still be content to follow the 
lead of Hill, Murphy & Co." 

324 



AN UNPRECEDENTED RESTORATION 325 

The opening of the presidential year 1892 found him 
again laboriously preparing an address on Andrew Jack- 
son. Of the real Andrew Jackson he knew little, as the 
not infrequent references to him in letters and speeches 
abundantly demonstrate. But of the ^'Andrew Jackson 
cult," the national Democracy annually worshiping at 
Jackson's shrine, he knew a great deal; and his speech 
was a skillful appeal to its votaries to exhibit the Jack- 
sonian qualities — vigor, courage, honesty of purpose, 
steady persistency — in the coming elections. "We who 
are proud to call ourselves Jacksonian Democrats," he 
said, "have boldly and aggressively attacked a political 
heresy opposed to the best interests of the people and de- 
fended by an arrogant and unscrupulous party. The fight 
is still on. Who has the hardihood to say that we can lay 
claim to the least Jacksonian spirit if, in the struggle, 
we turn our backs to the enemy or lower in the least our 
colors?" This was good Jackson doctrine; but it was 
equally good Cleveland doctrine, for of each it may justly 
be said that, in a fight, his only use for a back was to put 
it against the wall. 

While containing little of lasting value, this address 
made it clear, were there doubters, that the principles of 
the tariff message of 1887 were still the fighting issues of 
Grover Cleveland. If Democracy was ready again to 
march to battle for those principles, their leader would 
not fail them, if called upon. He was, however, still only 
a willing, not an eager, potential leader. 

As it chanced, this January 8th marked the turning 
point. While Cleveland in New York was lauding Jack- 
son, Democrats throughout the nation were reading the 
call for the assembling of their national convention, and 
the Hill-Murphy machine was planning a coup which 
would eliminate Grover Cleveland and give to David B. 



326 GROVER CLEVELAND 

Hill the entire New York delegation. In total disregard 
of precedent, and despite the fact that the Democratic 
National Committee had set June 21st as the date for the 
National Convention, they issued, upon short notice, a 
call for a state convention, to be held at Albany on 
February 22nd. 

The meaning of such a move was not lost on the 
country. Everywhere it was interpreted as a scheme of 
machine men to beat the man they could not buy, and to 
trim a New York boss with Tammany backing for the 
Presidency. The undemocratic character of the move- 
ment was denounced in headlines throughout the country 
as the "Snap Convention" idea. But the New York ma- 
chine had the power, and could not be turned from its 
purpose to use it. 

As early as September 26, 1891, C. S. Cary had sent 
to Mr. Cleveland a warning that "there is a combination 
between Croker, Hill, and Murphy to control the Demo- 
cratic party of this State, by resort to the most outrageous 
methods that have ever been resorted to in the State." 
And now the facts were plainly fulfilling the prediction, 
although neither Murphy, Croker, nor Hill was the 
originator of the idea. Writing fifteen years after the 
event, St. Clair McKelway, who certainly knew the facts 
and who as certainly had no predisposition to guard the 
memory of Hill, declared: "The February 22, 1892, 
Snap State Convention was not brought about on Gover- 
nor Hill's initiative. He was asked to bring it on by 
those who deserted him, when he complied with their 
request. The others were Senator Gorman of Maryland, 
Senator Palmer of Illinois, and Senator Voorhees of 
Indiana." 

Gorman and Palmer, quite as really as David B. Hill, 
were seeking the Democratic nomination, but both had 



AN UNPRECEDENTED RESTORATION 327 

managed to conceal that fact from the watchful eyes of 
their astute associates in this important cold-storage 
enterprise. Murphy's eyes, while not venturing to seek 
the White House, gazed at New York's empty seat in the 
United States Senate, and tiger-like, he hunted silently 
that other tiger, Richard Croker, treading softly at his 
side, knowing by experience that he would share the game 
when taken. But whoever deserves the doubtful honor 
of having invented the "Snap Convention" idea, it was 
Hill who paid the penalty. He alone took, openly and 
eagerly, the gambler's chance, only to find that it was not 
the hour of the gambler. 

Just before the meeting of the State Committee, Wil- 
liam C. Whitney penciled a protest against the idea of 
a Snap Convention, which Ellery Anderson, R. G. Mon- 
roe and others presented in person, but it produced no 
effect. As soon as the protestants retired, the call for the 
Snap Convention of February 22nd was issued. At once 
indignant Democrats, headed by Charles S. Fairchild, 
Frederick R. Coudert, William R. Grace, and Ellery 
Anderson, met at the Murray Hill Hotel, and denounced 
the plan, declaring that "the outcome of a convention 
selected in midwinter upon so short a call cannot be fairly 
and truly representative of the Democratic sentiment of 
the State, and would inevitably debar the mass of Demo- 
cratic voters from the voice to which they are justly 
entitled in the selection of the Democratic candidates foe 
President and Vice President and the framing of the 
party's platform." 

This was the beginning of a determined fight against 
Hill and his political methods. Cleveland Democrats 
signed and circulated petitions denouncing the Snap Con- 
vention idea, to be themselves denounced by Chairman 
Murphy, but to be praised in press and in pulpit through- 



328 GROVER CLEVELAND 

out the state and beyond. When the Snap Convention 
assembled, a committee headed by Mr. Fairchild ap- 
peared with another spirited protest against the pro- 
ceeding. And when this protest too was unheeded, they 
at once carried out their contingent instructions to issue 
a call for a state convention, to be held at Syracuse in 
May, in order that a contesting New York delegation 
might find ready supporters when the National Conven- 
tion should assemble. 

While the Hill-Murphy clans were gathering at 
Albany, Cleveland was starting for Ann Arbor to make 
the Washington's Birthday address to the students of the 
University of Michigan. It was his desire to make the 
trip as unostentatiously as possible, but his political 
sponsors thought otherwise, and arranged for a special 
train, with all the camp following of an ex-President con- 
templating a speedy abbreviation of the title. 

In the cars adjoining his was the standard collection 
of politicians, who passed the time in gloomy predictions 
regarding the pending fate of their leader at the hands 
of machine men, protective tariff men, silver men, pen- 
sion men, and other especially horrific enemies, and who 
gravely prophesied with reference to the chances of Hill. 
Fresh in their minds was the memory of Mr. Cleveland's 
recent "injudicious" attack upon free silver, and of Hill's 
"more politic" utterances; and it was the general opinion 
that "the old man's done for." One said, "I begged him 
not to write that anti-silver letter, but he would do it, 
and it has killed him. It has caused such a split that 
nothing can be done." 

But upon the platform at Ann Arbor the next day Mr. 
Cleveland showed that something could be done. He 
delivered a speech on "The Character of George Wash- 
ington" which threw a flood of light upon the character 



AN UNPRECEDENTED RESTORATION 329 

of Grover Cleveland. A speech with less apparent po- 
litical significance could hardly have been devised. But 
its almost childlike profession of faith in the homely- 
virtues of truth, fidelity to duty, family affection, and 
trust in God, took hold upon the people as no learned 
discourse, no political invective, could have done. 

His listeners felt, as did the millions who read the 
address or who heard echoes of its teachings, that here 
was a public man whose record entitled him to discuss 
ethical standards for public officials, standards which 
mean "the exaction of moral principle and personal 
honor and honesty and goodness as indispensable creden- 
tials to political preferment." "I know," he said, "that 
the decrees of God are never obsolete. . . . Do not sur- 
render your faith to those who discredit and debase poli- 
tics by scoffing at sentiment and principle, and whose 
political activity consists in attempts to gain popular sup- 
port by cunning devices and shrewd manipulation." 

It is quite apparent that the Snap Convention was in 
his mind when he wrote these lines, but he came no nearer 
to the discussion of pending political issues. He was con- 
tent to deal with principles, believing that the people 
would themselves make the practical application at the 
proper time. "The people are not dead, but sleeping," 
he declared. "They will awaken in good time, and 
scourge the money changers from their sacred temple." 
Mr. Cleveland's friends, not satisfied to leave the awaken- 
ing of the people solely to chance incidents, planned the 
publicity releases in such a way that the public read 
Cleveland's Ann Arbor speech and the incidents of the 
Snap Convention in the same issues of their local papers. 

From a comparison of his methods with those of the 
Cleveland faction, Hill saw no reason to shrink. He had 
won his state delegation by the skillful use of means con- 



330 GROVER CLEVELAND 

secrated by generations of service, and no spiritual mis- 
givings arose to cloud the sunshine of his satisfaction. "I 
am a Democrat," was his oft-repeated phrase, and he was 
satisfied that he had won his preliminary contest with 
Grover Cleveland by methods which Democrats would 
approve. Indeed, to his dying day he insisted that his 
Snap Convention was entirely creditable. '*I was," he 
wrote to St. Clair McKelway sixteen years later, "a 
candidate for the Presidential nomination in 1892. . . . 
The New York delegation had been instructed for me 
in its State Convention which had been duly called on the 
usual thirty days' notice and in which there was not really 
a contested seat, and I was entitled to the full vote of the 
State in the National Convention." 

Mr. Cleveland returned from Ann Arbor, well pleased 
with the signs of favor shown him in the West and some- 
what elated at the reception which his Washington's 
Birthday address had received. 

"I arrived home Thursday morning, quite tired and 
with my hand a little lame, but feeling pretty well," he 
wrote Bissell on March first. "My trip has started up a 
number of invitations from colleges, &c., in different 
parts of the country, but I intend to 'stay put' now for 
awhile. I had a very warm invitation from Yale this 
morning. 

"The protesting movement seems to move on without 
much abatement. It's wonderful how well the situation 
in New York is understood in every corner of the land. 
If things go on I shall not be surprised if Tammany Hall 
hears some very plain language next June. The question 
in my mind now is whether it would not be better for the 
convention in May to send a committee to Chicago in- 
stead of delegates claiming admission. Within the last 
day or two I have heard quite a little talk about my doing 



AN UNPRECEDENTED RESTORATION 33 1 

something. Some want me to write a letter denying that 
I have withdrawn, &c. Others rather hint that I should 
do something still more pronounced. A letter might 
be carefully written that would steer clear of anything 
like self-assertion and which might still plainly present 
the fact that I did not intend, for personal reasons and to 
satisfy personal inclinations, to abandon those enlisted in 
a cause to which they deem me useful. My personal 
desire you fully understand, but I am going to tell you 
how I think the matter may progress. 

''Congress will do about all the fool things it can, 
nearly, or quite (so far as they can), committing the party 
to the silver craze and puttering with tariff reform until 
it is tired and sick as an issue. When the Convention 
meets the representatives of the party will perhaps see 
the condition — that they have nearly lost the only issues 
upon which there is the least hope of carrying the 
Country. If they do, they will see that they must have a 
man who in his person and record represents exactly the 
things so nearly thrown away and the direct opposite of 
all that they have tried to do. 

"If such a man is nominated, the Democratic masses 
and the honest men of non-Democratic affiliations will 
feel so relieved and so happy in the prospect of political 
salvation that an enthusiasm will be furnished to the cam- 
paign that will be irresistible. If matters should take on 
such a complexion present politics would be brushed 
aside without any ceremony. A good sound new man 
might just fit the situation. The people in the eastern 
states, especially Massachusetts, are very much roused and 
I should not be surprised if they spoke quite emphatically 
very soon. Every man in this state ought to be well 
considered." 

This letter makes it abundantly clear that Mr. Cleve- 



332 GROVER CLEVELAND 

land even yet did not have his heart set upon a return to 
the White House. It w^as, however, a private letter, 
written to an intimate and confidential friend, and as 
such not given to the press. It therefore did nothing to 
enlighten the thousands of eager friends and the thou- 
sands of even more eager enemies who were awaiting his 
declaration. 

On March 9th, in reply to the oft-repeated question: 
"Will you be a candidate in 1892?" he wrote to the Hon- 
orable Edward S. Bragg, author of the slogan, "We love 
him for the enemies he has made" : 

My DEAR Sir: 

Your letter of the 5th inst. is received. I have thought 
until now that I might continue silent on the subject 
which, under the high sanction of your position as my 
"fellow-Democrat and fellow-citizen," and in your rela- 
tion as a true and trusted friend, you present to me. If, 
in answering your question, I might only consider my 
personal desires and my individual ease and comfort, my 
response would be promptly made, and without the least 
reservation or difficulty. 

But if you are right in supposing that the subject is 
related to a duty I owe to the country and to my party, 
a condition exists which makes such private and personal 
considerations entirely irrelevant. I cannot, however, 
refrain from declaring to you that my experience in the 
great office of President of the United States has so im- 
pressed me with the solemnity of the trust and its awful 
responsibilities, that I cannot bring myself to regard a 
candidacy for the place as something to be won by per- 
sonal strife and active self-assertion. 

I have also an idea that the Presidency is pre-emi- 
nently the people's office, and I have been sincere in my 



AN UNPRECEDENTED RESTORATION 333 

constant advocacy of the effective participation in politi- 
cal affairs on the part of all our citizens. Consequently, I 
believe the people should be heard in the choice of their 
party candidates, and that they themselves should make 
nominations as directly as is consistent with open, fair, 
and full party organizations and methods. 

I speak of these things solely for the purpose of ad- 
vising you that my conception of the nature of the Presi- 
dential office, and my conviction that the voters of our 
party should be free in the selection of their candidates, 
preclude the possibility of my leading and pushing a 
self-seeking canvass for the Presidential nomination, even 
if I had a desire to be again a candidate. 

Believing that the complete supremacy of Democratic 
principles means increased national prosperity and the 
increased happiness of our people, I am earnestly anxious 
for the success of the party. I am confident success is still 
within our reach, but I believe this is a time for Demo- 
cratic thoughtfulness and deliberation, not only as to 
candidates, but concerning party action upon questions 
of immense interest to the patriotic and intelligent voters 
of the land, who watch for an assurance of safety as the 
price of their confidence and support. 
Yours very truly, 

Grover Cleveland. 

And so the die was cast, and from that moment Grover 
Cleveland stood before the country as a candidate for a 
third nomination. 

Five days later came encouraging news from Ne- 
braska, whose State Convention rejected, on a square vote 
forced by the able and brilliant Congressman, William 
Jennings Bryan, a resolution favoring the unlimited coin- 
age of silver. Mr. Bryan's boundless personal popu- 



334 GROVER CLEVELAND 

larity, which equaled in Nebraska Mr. Cleveland's popu- 
larity in the country at large, could not save him. He 
was on the floor, and in the lobbies of the convention; he 
was everywhere, with personal appeal for himself, and 
he was beaten — beaten by the power of a Cleveland wave 
which had swept over the state, inflaming public opinion 
with a desire to see the ex-President restored to the White 
House. Indeed, only the fear that New York would be 
lost should Cleveland be nominated, prevented the Ne- 
braska Convention from instructing for him. 

Mr. Cleveland was quite conscious of the growing 
power of the "silver heresy" and was determined that his 
nomination, if it came at all, should come with the clear 
knowledge that he was the implacable enemy of free 
silver. The idea of going down to defeat lashed to party 
planks of sound political principles caused him no alarm. 
To be beaten on account of unpopular principles was to 
him far preferable to winning a victory based upon un- 
sound principles. This feeling he set forth in detail, in 
a letter to Mr. Justice Lamar: 

"I have within the last few months passed through 
much that has been trying and perplexing to me. The 
office of president has not to me personally a single allure- 
ment. I shrink from everything which another canvass 
and its result involves. I know what another election 
means, and I know as well the dark depths that yawn at 
the foot of another defeat. I would avoid either if I 
should consult alone my peace, my comfort or my desire. 

"My discomforts arise from a sense of duty to honest 
people and devoted friends. I am alone with my own 
thoughts and with the apparent trust and confidence of 
my countrymen. Am I mistaken in all this, and are my 
country and my party prepared to discharge me from 



AN UNPRECEDENTED RESTORATION 335 

service? One thing I know. Forces are at work which 
certainly mean the complete turning back of the hands 
on the dial of democracy, and the destruction of party 
hopes. 

"Is it ordained that I am to be the instrument through 
which democratic principles can be saved, whether party 
supremacy immediately awaits us or not? If folly is to 
defeat us in any event, ought I to be called upon to place 
myself under the falling timber? This last consideration 
smacks a little of care for self, which perhaps ought to be 
discarded. 

"You shall know, my dear friend, my inmost thoughts. 
I shall be obedient to the call of my country and my 
party. Whatever happens, no one shall say that I refused 
to serve in time of evil, or abandoned those whom I have 
been instrumental in calling to the field, when is waged 
the battle for democratic principle. If I am given my 
discharge I shall thank God most fervently. I can easily 
be disposed of, either by the selection of a candidate more 
available, or by the adoption of a campaign policy on the 
financial question which I am not willing to further. In 
the first case, I shall be a happy helper; in the second, I 
shall sadly await the announcement of a party defeat 
which will be predetermined. 

"Our southern friends, if they persist, will be left alone 
with their free coinage heresy. The west is slipping away 
from their side. The danger is that another idea, and a 
charge of heedlessness for the public safety on the finan- 
cial question will do service in the place of the memories 
of the civil war. 

"The question is often and justifiably put by friendly 
southerners, 'Can Cleveland carry New York?' The 
answer is ready as to Cleveland or any other man, if the 
democracy is at all weak on the coinage question. 



336 GROVER CLEVELAND 

"As one who loves his country and believes that her 
interest is bound up in democratic supremacy, I am most 
uncomfortable and unhappy in the fear that the south 
will not see until too late the danger of their marring all." 

This letter shows how clear was his conviction, even 
at this early date, that for the Democratic party to adopt 
the free silver heresy was to court certain defeat at the 
hands of the people — a remarkable instance of a vision 
ahead of his party, and in fact of both parties; for until 
the crisis of 1896 was over and the Democrats were com- 
mitted to free silver, both parties were uncertain upon the 
question which in Mr. Cleveland's view was only one of 
common sense and common honesty. 

In May Mr. Whitney returned from Europe and 
assumed the leadership of the Cleveland movement. He 
found that there were more delegates favorable to Cleve- 
land than to Hill, but he found also that every New York 
delegate had signed a protest against the ex-President's 
renomination. As an experienced leader, Whitney knew 
this to be a heavy handicap, especially in the case of a 
candidate who had led the party twice already, the second 
time to electoral defeat. He was conscious also that the 
regulars regarded a Democratic victory in November as 
well-nigh certain, even should the convention choose a 
candidate unacceptable to the Mugwumps; for the 
country was weary of Republican rule and high tariffs. 

When the contesting delegation, "the May delegates," 
as Mr. Cleveland called his "anti-snap" representa- 
tives, were ready to start for Chicago, Whitney took con- 
trol, resolved not to fight to seat the "May delegates," but 
to win a nomination without their votes. To his mind 
it was no longer a question of disputing the control of 
New York with the Hill-Murphy machine, but of secur- 
ing the nomination of Mr. Cleveland under conditions 



AN UNPRECEDENTED RESTORATION 337 

least likely to divide the party. In preliminary confer- 
ences with Cleveland men from every state Whitney 
checked up the Cleveland vote. Upon the basis of re- 
ports carefully probed, he decided that at least six hun- 
dred delegates w^ould vote for Cleveland on the first ballot. 
Under these conditions, it was manifestly wise to avoid 
an open contest with the corporal's guard which had 
come prepared to vote for Hill. 

In the meantime, Senator Gorman had made similar 
canvasses and had reached a similar conclusion. He 
therefore deserted the Hill camp and went over to the 
Cleveland forces, to be speedily followed by Senator 
Palmer, while Senator Voorhees, the third member of the 
trio which had launched the Snap Convention, retired to 
Indiana, leaving his followers to make such terms as they 
could with the Whitney-led forces of Grover Cleveland. 

Mr. Cleveland was far less confident of victory than 
were his friends. On June nth he wrote to Bissell: 

*'I am delighted to know that you are going to Chi- 
cago, for if my name is presented there and there is any 
danger of my nomination, I shall feel very safe and com- 
fortable if a few such good and discreet friends as you 
are on the spot. . . . You may not understand, and per- 
haps will not entirely approve, the way the thing has 
drifted; but I have been fully convinced that nothing 
better could be done in this thing than to have Whitney 
pretty well to the front in the matter of management and 
organization. In point of fact, it has already gravitated 
to that point. Associated with him from N. Y. State I 
hope will be Bissell, Cady Herrick, Tracy, Stetson and 
such others as are like-minded and are wise and use- 
ful. . . . 

*'One reason why I hope the persons I have mentioned 



338 GROVER CLEVELAND , 

will work together is found in my anxiety about the plat- 
form of the Convention. Of course as a Democrat I want 
a good platform for the success of our party; and if I 
should chance to be in any way related to it, it must be 
sound, especially in the money plank. If the nomination 
to the Presidency passes by me I shall be anything but 
disappointed or afflicted; but for the nomination, or for 
anything else, I cannot forego my opinions nor appear 
to shuffle or falter on the financial question. . . . While 
I want to do my duty to my party and the good people of 
the Country, I am still perfectly sincere in saying that the 
result which would bring to me the greatest personal 
gratification would be the nomination of some other good 
man and good Democrat. And this is quite consistent 
with my great satisfaction and gratitude for all that is 
done for me." 

Among the things that had been done for him was 
the installation at his summer home of a telegraph oper- 
ator, that to some extent the ex-President might follow, 
moment by moment, the developments in the convention. 
There were of course many details which could not be 
sent over the wire, much business being transacted in 
secret. 

At Chicago, his friends, like those of every candidate 
since the convention system was inaugurated, conciliated, 
coaxed, promised, and bargained with those who con- 
trolled the floating votes. His enemies lurking in the 
corridors captured these same doubtful delegates as they 
left his friends and spread before them counter-promises^ 
threats, and intimidations, pointing to past defeats and 
predicting future disasters if this man Cleveland should 
be again chosen to lead the party. 

At the beginning of these conferences the anti-Cleve- 



AN UNPRECEDENTED RESTORATION 339 

land men were jubilantly confident, but as they talked to 
delegation after delegation they began to see that a sur- 
prising number were from sections where the people had 
shown an unmistakable desire for Cleveland leadership. 
What was the explanation? They had played the dead 
march over him. But now, ears to the ground, they 
heard the sound of the "master's" voice — the people were 
speaking the name, Grover Cleveland. Why? They 
could not tell. He lacked the magic personality which 
had at times made anti-machine men irresistible. He was 
in no sense either dramatic or picturesque. He could not 
be looked upon as a campaigner, for he was opposed to 
the idea of a candidate for the Presidency pleading his 
own cause from the stump. As a public speaker, further- 
more, he was as uninspiring as reluctant. He never spoke 
unless compelled by a sense of duty, and then with few 
of the arts of the orator. He promised no favors, courted 
no leaders, conciliated no mobs. Why such a man should 
defy the laws of politics, long accepted as immutable, 
and rise from his political grave to the discomfiture of 
the regulars, no regular could understand. But that he 
'was to be the controlling force in that convention few 
doubted after the first few hours of preliminary skir- 
mishing. 

When at last the private wire in the gun room at Gray 
Gables began to click off the proceedings, moment by 
moment, the excitement of his companions — Mrs. Cleve- 
land, Mr. and Mrs. William E. Russell, Mr. Joseph 
Jefferson and his two sons — became intense. Indeed, of 
that little company only one appeared entirely at ease, 
and that one was Grover Cleveland. Once he arose with 
the surprising statement, "I forgot to dry my lines," and 
retired to the garden to stretch his fishing line across the 
laundress's drying ground. 



340 GROVER CLEVELAND 

As the nomination speeches began, the gun room 
waited, breathless. The honor of naming Grover Cleve- 
land had fallen to Governor Leon Abbett of New Jersey, 
not because of any particular Cleveland enthusiasm on 
his part, as he was an old-line politician with a sneaking 
sympathy for Hill, but because, in opposition to his 
wishes, the New Jersey delegation were under instruc- 
tions "to vote for Mr. Cleveland so long as his name 
should be before the convention." When the roll call 
reached Arkansas, she yielded to New Jersey. "Governdr 
Abbett is nominating Grover Cleveland," reported the 
private wire; and then followed the usual bewildering 
succession of speeches, lasting until midnight. 

Shortly after twelve o'clock, the roll of the states com- 
plete, the weary delegates and the thousands of weary 
onlookers, including the select company in the gun room, 
were rallying their jaded minds for the long-expected first 
ballot, when the famous Tammany orator, Bourke 
Cockran, furnished a diversion. Apparently unconscious 
of the fact that more oratory was what the convention 
least desired, in the face of a tempest which was raging 
without and an anti-Tammany victory which was immi- 
nent within, he mounted the platform and for an hour 
and a half held his weary audience of hostile but charmed 
' listeners by the eloquence of his attack upon Grover 
Cleveland and his support of Hill. When Cockran had 
finished his last rounded period and resumed his seat, 
the Cleveland men, without a word of reply, moved that 
a ballot be taken. 

The vote came to the gun room, state by state, as the 
roll was called. Mr. Cleveland occupied a chair imme- 
diately in front of the window, and just opposite him sat 
Joe Jefferson, the rest of the little company being in the 
center of the room. Thus grouped, they had watched 



AN UNPRECEDENTED RESTORATION 34 1 

night fall. Now sunrise was approaching, as they tabu- 
lated the call of states. Six hundred and seven must be 
registered in the Cleveland column before the traditional 
two-thirds majority would be complete. 

Glancing out of the window during one of the pauses 
between reports from the operator, Mrs. Cleveland re- 
marked that a little stream in the center of the landscape 
had caught the crimson glow of dawn. Then came 
another report, and another, and then, just as the first ray 
of sunshine strayed through the window, touching Mr. 
Cleveland's head, the operator gave the final touch to the 
picture by announcing: "Mr. Cleveland is nominated." 

That lone ballot tells the tale of the astonishing failure 
of the Hill campaign, the Snap Convention, and the Tam- 
many orator combined; and of the still more astonishing 
strength of Grover Cleveland: 

Whole number of votes 909 1-2 

Number necessary for 2-3 majority 607 

Grover Cleveland of New York. . . 617 1-3 

David B. Hill of New York 114 

Horace Boies of Iowa 103 

Arthur P. Gorman of Maryland. . 36 1-2 

Adlai E. Stevenson of Illinois. ... 16 2-3 

John G. Carlisle of Kentucky 14 

William R. Morrison of Illinois. . 3 

James E. Campbell of Ohio 2 

William C. Whitney of New York i 
William E. Russell of Massa- 
chusetts I 

Robert E. Pattison of Pennsylvania i 

The platform, as at first reported by the committee, 
was alarmingly stand-pat upon the vital issue of the tariff; 



342 GROVER CLEVELAND 

but Mr. Cleveland's friends fought it in open conven- 
tion and won by the convincing majority of 564 to 342. 
As a result the platform ended with the following words, 
which might have been written by Mr. Cleveland him- 
self : "We reiterate the oft-repeated doctrines of the 
Democratic party that the necessity of government is the 
only justification for taxation, and that whenever a tax is 
unnecessary it is unjustifiable; that when custom house 
taxation is levied upon articles of any kind produced in 
this country, the difference between cost of labor here 
and labor abroad, when such a difference exists, fully 
measures any possible benefits to labor, and the enormous 
additional impositions of existing tariff fall with crush- 
ing force upon our farmers and workingmen and for the 
mere advantage of the few whom it enriches, exact from 
labor a grossly unjust share of the expenses of the Gov- 
ernment, and we demand such a revision of the tariff laws 
as will remove their iniquitous inequalities, lighten their 
oppression and put them on a Constitutional and equitable 
basis." 

From returning delegates Mr. Cleveland received 
those unpublished secrets in which every convention 
abounds. At first the May delegates from New York had 
been anxious for a trial of strength with the Snap Con- 
vention delegates. But Mr. Whitney, confident of the 
soundness of his preliminary calculations, insisted that 
"they could not afford to split New York; that if Hill 
bolted, we would lose the state; that the one thing we 
were after was to have our candidate nominated and 
elected." He carried his point and also his program, and 
for that reason no fair criticism can be made of the way 
he handled the Cleveland interests. There was, however, 
much bitter criticism; but from the following letter to 



AN UNPRECEDENTED RESTORATION 343 

Bissell it is evident that it received no encouragement 
from Mr. Cleveland: 

Gray Gables, 
Buzzards Bay, Mass. 

June JO, l8g2. 

My DEAR Bissell: 

I was delighted to receive your letter yesterday and 
thank you for it. I think the way you looked into my 
hand in the matter of dealing with certain parties is 
"perfectly lovely," as the ladies say. I will not attempt 
to tell you even a small part of what is in my mind and 
heart in the way of admiration and gratitude for all that 
was done at Chicago. All was superb, and it was almost 
uncanny to sit here at the end of a wire and see and hear 
and feel and know it all as it transpired. Of course my 
duty now is to be as good a candidate as possible, and do 
all I can to aid success. 

I do not think Murphy or Sheehan should be at all 
prominent in the campaign. In point of fact, I think 
neither of them, nor any of that kind of thing, should have 
the least direction of it. But I do think — indeed I know 
— that Whitney should nominally, if not really and 
actively, be at the head of the Committee to manage the 
National Campaign. I have regarded it as exceedingly 
desirable on my own judgment, and the letters I have 
received within a few days and the expressions I have 
heard made convince me that it is more essential and vital 
to success than any one thing. . . . 

I don't see how your baby got "them teeth." Ours 
could have plenty of them, I suppose, if she wanted them, 
but she don't eat any roasted beef or things of that kind 
— so what's the use? . . . 

I have never received so many and such warm and 



344 GROVER CLEVELAND 

enthusiastic congratulations, but thus far not one from 
any state official in New York, and almost none from the 
Hill following. This is queer, and I think it will be a 
good thing to let them dwell a while with their alleged 
reasons and consciences. 

I have written a queer kind of letter to Tammany 
Hall, to be read at its Fourth of July celebration. I 
shall watch and see how that takes. 

God bless you and your dear wife and baby. We all 
send love to them and you. I hear Ruth crowing and 
carrying on now. 

Yours faithfully, 

Grover Cleveland. 

Mr. Cleveland faced the campaign with a solemn 
sense of responsibility, but with the grateful consciousness 
that the people had demanded his return, and that he was 
to be allowed to reopen the case which the election of 
1888 had decided against him, and against the majority 
of the people. He had won a moral victory and one with- 
out gilt or tinsel. He had been nominated on his merit, 
not *'by cunning devices and shrewd manipulation," 
against which he had so earnestly warned the students of 
the University of Michigan. 

From the point of view of those trained to trust such 
methods, his return was a political miracle. They had 
discovered no machine adequate to so great a task, and 
the idea that his nomination was the natural result of a 
popular enthusiasm for an honest public servant was to 
them fanciful. That there had been a sort of machine 
they knew, of course. The Anti-Snappers had covered 
the land with their moral protest against the methods and 
aims of Hill and Murphy. But it was a machine de- 
signed to give the people the facts, not one organized to 



AN UNPRECEDENTED RESTORATION 345 

promise them offices, and its methods would have been 
entirely ineffective had not four years of sober second 
thought convinced the country that Grover Cleveland had 
been an honest public servant, fearless and painstaking, 
thinking first of duty and the people, and not even second 
of self. 

There was still another element, of the existence of 
which his enemies had of necessity been ignorant. The 
thousands of personal letters which he had written during 
the brief period of his retirement had greatly strength- 
ened his hold upon the public. Every man who had 
received such a letter faced the question of a party candi- 
date with a sense of personal relationship with Grover 
Cleveland, and the convention delegates were made to 
appreciate this fact. Thus in almost every section of the 
country he possessed friends whose enthusiasm no local 
politician could cool, and who labored for his nomination, 
and later for his election, in a spirit rarely seen among 
political workers. 

After some delay, the notification ceremony was set 
for Wednesday evening, July 20th, and Madison Square 
Garden was selected. The Philadelphia Public Ledger 
thus pictured Mr. Cleveland's appearance upon the occa- 
sion: "Whatever may have been his feelings, Grover 
Cleveland's face looked painfully sad as he stood on the 
platform and looked over the vast audience gathered to 
do him honor. Perhaps no other man ever experienced 
a greater personal triumph than he did at that time. 
Against all political precedent, and against bitter per- 
sonal opposition, he had been nominated for the third 
time to the highest office in the world, and there he stood, 
in the biggest hall of the greatest city of the State which 
had voted against him at Chicago, and in the presence of 
his enemies, as well as of his friends, and amid the plaudits 



346 GROVER CLEVELAND 

of 20,000 people was formally notified of his nomination. 
No Roman conquerer ever had a more notable triumph. 
No political leader in this country was ever welcomed by 
a grander audience. 

"Yet there was not the slightest sign of triumph in 
his face. His countenance mirrored forth no exultation 
of soul, no pride of victory, no joy over the discomfiture 
of his enemies. He did not smile once from the time he 
entered the hall until he left it, but surveyed the scene of 
triumph with a face that showed more humility than 
pride, more sadness than joy. At one time indeed it 
seemed as if he were going to break down and shed tears — 
this man of iron will and nerves of oak. 

"He seemed to regard the occasion with the feeling 
of a priest who is being consecrated for the holy services 
of bishop. But he never lost his self-possession and . . . 
repeated his speech from memory without the change of 
a single word. Reporters who held his printed speech in 
their hands and followed him word by word testify to 
this fact." 

But a Democratic nomination is by no means an elec- 
tion, and as Mr. Cleveland watched the progress of affairs 
in Washington he grew uneasy lest the foolish in his own 
party, in their infatuation for the heresy of free silver, 
should give President Harrison an opportunity to seize 
the sound money standard as the Republican battle flag. 

"If the Democratic House of Representatives," he 
wrote to Congressman Harter on July 7th, "permits a 
free silver bill to go to Mr. Harrison for his veto, those 
responsible for it will, in my opinion, stand a chance to 
gain the same splendid notoriety as the man who burned 
the Temple of Diana." On this question he felt as Daniel 
Webster had felt about the Democratic advocacy of the 
policy of the Wilmot proviso : "It is not their thunder." 



AN UNPRECEDENTED RESTORATION 347 

In his brief response to the formal notification of his 
nomination, however, he failed to touch the subject of 
free silver, again devoting his attention chiefly to the 
task of flaying ''the selfish schemes of those who seek 
through the aid of unequal tariff laws to gain unearned 
and unreasonable advantages at the expense of their fel- 
lows." He was determined that as he had against advice 
and warning led the party to defeat on the tariff issue, he 
would now lead it to victory upon that selfsame question. 

The condition of the New York Democracy was con- 
stantly on his mind. "Fishing or eating, reading or drink- 
ing, asleep or awake," he wrote to Bissell, "my mind has 
been on one thing constantly, and that is the situation 
politically in the city, county and state of New York. 
The thing is not right — that is, in my judgment. I be- 
lieve there is a lot of lying and cheating going on, and 
unless the complexion changes we shall wake up, I think, 
the morning after election and find that we have been 
fooled by as base a set of cutthroats as ever scuttled a ship. 

"The one of my friends at the front in the city of New 
York is Mr. Whitney. He is as true as steel, and is de- 
voting himself night and day to the work. But his labor 
is altogether in the line of pacification and everything he 
does tends to persuading the men of Tammany Hall and 
those who belong to their gang, to vote the Democratic 
ticket. In the meantime my friends are entirely ignored, 
or are treated as if they deserved punishment. This is 
on the theory, as he says, that my friends we have anyway, 
and the point should be to gain the support and votes of 
those who were not my friends at Chicago and who were 
'beaten and humiliated.' 

"The campaign is to be put in the hands of men who 
have solemnly declared that I cannot carry New York. 



348 GROVER CLEVELAND 

Do you suppose that Hill wants to see me elected? Look 
at the men through the state whom he has been building 
up for two years and who are on the local committees. 
They will, I suppose, insist stronger than ever upon man- 
aging the campaign in their localities, and when the 
disaster comes will lay it on the May Convention 
people. . . . You will see, when men are appointed to 
attend to political business in the campaign, that they will 
be Hill men unless such a thing is prevented. You will 
see Sheehan on the Executive Committee, and then I 
believe the effort will be to let the ticket drop and hide 
their responsibility for it. If this is the result, Whitney 
will be as badly fooled, or worse, than anybody else; but 
you see, when a man is thoroughly saturated with pacifi- 
cation he doesn't suspect these things. . . . It's a funny 
thing for a man to be running for the Presidency with all 
the politicians against him." 

As the campaign proceeded it became more and more 
evident that Whitney's faith was indeed pinned to the 
policy of pacifying Tammany Hall. He knew that Tam- 
many leaders held the vote of New York City in the hol- 
low of their hands, and that they were disposed to use it 
for Mr. Cleveland's defeat. With Richard Croker, who 
had succeeded John Kelly as "Big Chief," Whitney had 
great influence, having ably defended him against the 
charge of murder. With characteristic fidelity to a friend, 
Croker remembered the service gratefully, and through 
that gratitude Whitney hoped to bring Tammany into 
line for the Democratic candidate. 

Much as Mr. Cleveland admired Mr. Whitney, the 
methods of conciliation always irked him, and in the 
secrecy of a confidential letter to Bissell he again poured 
out his heart regarding Whitney's latest proposition. 



AN UNPRECEDENTED RESTORATION 349 

Gray Gables, 
Buzzard's Bay, Mass. 

August 10, I8g2, 

My dear Bissell: 

There is an old story which you have doubtless heard 
but which was fixed in my mind by the fact that it is the 
only story I ever heard Chapin of Brooklyn tell. 

A frontiersman had occasion to leave his cabin and 
his wife and children for a number of days and nights. 
When he returned he found that his house had been 
burned and the mutilated and charred remains of his fam- 
ily were scattered about the ground. He leaned upon 
his gun in silence for a moment, and then remarked with 
earnestness: "Well, I'll be damned, if this ain't too 
ridiculous!" 

I felt like saying just that when I read in the paper 
yesterday morning that Sheehan had been appointed 
Chairman of the Campaign State Committee. 

My condition is not improved by receiving a letter 
from Whitney to-day in which he suggests the form of a 
most abject and humble letter for me to write to Murphy 
amounting to a prayer for his support. I'll see the whole 
outfit to the Devil before I'll do it. Somebody must be 
crazy, and unless the people of the State take matters 
in their own hands some people stand a right smart chance 
to get left — and I am one of them. I expect to see Whit- 
ney on Monday. I am glad it is not to-day, for I don't 
believe I could hold myself in. 

Yours faithfully, 

Grover Cleveland. 

Other Democrats also found it difficult to "hold them- 
selves in" as they watched Whitney's constant overtures 



350 GROVER CLEVELAND 

to Tammany Hall. Many of Mr. Cleveland's followers 
feared that by this course he would arouse antagonism, 
not alone in Mugwump and Independent circles, but 
among conservative Democrats as well; not only in New 
York, but throughout the country, doing irreparable harm 
in the close states, and perhaps causing Cleveland's de- 
feat. But Whitney was determined, his New York asso- 
ciates supported him, and during the rest of the summer 
the candidate was constantly reminded that "Murphy has 
the votes." "It is no use to say not to trust any of them," 
Whitney wrote on August 22d; "we have got to trust 
them. They have the organization and the power, and 
by trusting them we can make them pull straight. I wish 
you would do as much reconciling of recalcitrants as you 
see your way to do. You can do more with a word than 
I can with a speech." 

Again and again Mr. Cleveland expressed his pent-up 
feelings, as these reminders came — to Bissell most freely 
of all. On September 4th, he wrote from Gray Gables : 

My DEAR Bissell: 

... I feel very gloomy and very much provoked and 
am not sure that I ought to write to you in such a mood. 
The whole policy of truckling conciliation which has 
characterized the campaign thus far has resulted in its 
legitimate fruit and I am urged now to send for Murphy 
and Sheehan and conciliate them. 

Whitney wrote me a letter he wanted me to send to 
Murphy and I declined to do it — whereupon he wrote me 
a very petulant and unpleasant letter. He was here yes- 
terday and we had a little talk — nothing unpleasant, but 
I can see that he is not satisfied and he seemed to be on 
the point of exploding. He professes to feel that the 
campaign is in a very dangerous shape and more than half 



AN UNPRECEDENTED RESTORATION 35 1 

intimates that unless I get into personal relations with 
these men I will be defeated. 

I told him I would go to New York whenever he de- 
sired and meet them and be as agreeable as I could, but 
I would not pledge myself to do their bidding in case of 
success. I further told him I did not want to annoy him, 
but that I did not have a particle of confidence in Sheehan 
and that I thought he would use any money or power 
that was put into his hands for the election of members 
of assembly to the end that Flower might be made Sena- 
tor and he Governor. 

I believe Tammany and Kings will do as well as they 
can, that the electoral tickets will be neglected for the 
legislative tickets in the rural districts, and that if I am 
defeated in the State it will be claimed as further proof 
of my unpopularity, which will be urged as an explana- 
tion of the result. The neglect of everything except tick- 
ling these men amounts to a craze at headquarters, and in 
the meantime the campaign, it seems to me, limps and 
halts. 

I curse myself for getting into this scrape, and would 
get out of it to-day if I could. I will not give up my 
old friends for the gang, and yet I do not see why the 
latter want me to conciliate them unless they mean by 
that an assurance which they will regard as a promise of 
exclusive favor and influence. 

Cannot you come and see me for a day? We are easily 
reached from Boston. 

Yours faithfully, 

Grover Cleveland. 

Mr. Whitney's persistence having at last brought from 
Mr. Cleveland a grudging consent to come down from 
Gray Gables in order that conciliation might have a fair 



352 GROVER CLEVELAND 

trial, the latter arrived in New York, and went at once to 
the Victoria Hotel, where Judge Herrick of Albany joined 
him by appointment, finding the candidate in a condition 
of unusual excitement, Mr. Cleveland remarked that he 
had been brought to the city to persuade the Democratic 
organization to support him; that if the recognition of 
that organization meant the ignoring of men who had 
stood by him in the state, he was prepared to decline the 
nomination and support any man substituted in his place; 
but that if his friends agreed that he should not yield to 
the organization, he was prepared to call mass meetings 
in every county in the state and to inform the people that 
the so-called Democratic organization had refused to sup- 
port the regular Democratic nominee for the Presidency. 

Judge Herrick replied that the organization ought 
to be recognized; that there were many bright men in the 
machine who could be given appointments abroad; that 
others could be brought down to Washington and kept 
under Mr. Cleveland's own eyes; that Mr. Cleveland's 
friends could be appointed to Federal positions in the 
state; and that in less than six months they would have 
control of the organization. At this point Mr. Whitney 
came in, accompanied by Mr. Dickinson, and among 
them they persuaded Mr. Cleveland to meet the Tam- 
many chiefs, Murphy, Croker, and Sheehan, at a dinner 
of reconciliation which was to be staged in the Victoria 
Hotel. Judge Herrick was urged to be present also, but 
declined, feeling that he was persona non grata to the 
Tammany leaders. 

But Mr. Cleveland proved conciliatory only in the 
going. When the dinner was ended, and the hour for 
discussion had arrived, he turned to the expectant machine 
men and said: 

"Well, gentlemen, what do you want?" 



AN UNPRECEDENTED RESTORATION 353 

"We want pledges from you," replied Mr. Sheehan. 
"We want to know what you are going to do if you are 
elected. We want you to give us promises that will satisfy 
us that the organization will be properly recognized if 
you become President again." 

Mr. Cleveland doubled up his huge fist and smote 
the table. 

"Gentlemen," he said, speaking slowly and with almost 
painful distinctness, "I will not go into the White House 
pledged to you or to any one else. I will make no secret 
promises. I'll be damned if I will." 

Again the big fist whacked the table. 

"What are you going to do then?" inquired Mr. 
Sheehan cynically. 

"I'll tell you what I'm going to do," said Mr. Cleve- 
land as he rose to his feet. "I intend to address a letter to 
the public in which I shall withdraw from the ticket. I 
intend to explain my situation and to report what you 
have said to me here. I will tell the voters of the country 
that I cannot give any secret pledges, and that unless I do 
you will not support the Democratic ticket. I will tell 
the voters that I do not want to stand in the way of a 
Democratic victory. That is what I shall do. Then, 
gentlemen, you can pick out a candidate to suit you, and 
if he is a proper man and the candidate of the party I 
will vote for him." 

There was a pause. 

"But I'll tell you one thing, Mr. Sheehan," added Mr. 
Cleveland, as he turned to the now breathless Lieutenant- 
Governor, "in my opinion public indignation will snow 
you and your organization out of sight before the end of 
a week." 

Mr. Croker leaped to his feet at this point, exclaim- 
ing: "This must stop, Mr. Sheehan; I agree with Mr. 



354 GROVER CLEVELAND 

Cleveland. He cannot make any pledges and it is not 
right to ask for them." 

Thus did Mr. Whitney's policy of conciliation con- 
ciliate by conquering, and Grover Cleveland again faced 
the election a free man. 

Meanwhile he was engaged upon the uncongenial 
work of preparing his letter of acceptance. The day it 
was completed, he wrote to Gilder: "Take my advice, 
my dear friend, and never run for President." 

The letter itself did not satisfy him. His own pro- 
ductions rarely did. Nor can it be said that it was a 
literary composition of great distinction. It was marked, 
as were all his writings, by a ruggedness of style and 
an involved and cumbersome construction, but it made 
perfectly clear Mr. Cleveland's thought, and contained 
not one word of doubtful meaning. The greater part of 
the letter he devoted to a discussion of the necessity of 
reducing the tarifif to a revenue basis, but he touched also 
upon sound money, and civil service reform. He prom- 
ised "consideration for our worthy veteran soldiers, and 
for the families of those who have died," while contend- 
ing anew that our pension roll should be a roll of honor 
"uncontaminated by ill desert, and unvitiated by dema- 
gogic use." 

The campaign developed no new or startling features, 
except the unexpected growth of the Populist strength in 
the West and in certain Southern districts, a growth the 
full meaning of which appeared later. 

The Republicans, conscious that their ticket, Benjamin 
Harrison and Whitelaw Reid, was not an inspiring one, 
trusted that the hopeless break in the New York Democ- 
racy might give them victory. They knew that Tam- 
many's declarations of loyalty to the Democratic ticket 
meant little, and put their faith in the confident assertion 



AN UNPRECEDENTED RESTORATION 355 

of the Hill faction that Grover Cleveland could not carry 
New York. 

During the campaign Mr. Cleveland received an in- 
vitation to pay a personal visit in Chicago at a time when 
Mrs. Harrison's illness compelled the Republican candi- 
date to remain inactive. He replied: "I am unwilling 
to take a trip which . . . would be regarded as a political 
tour made by a candidate for the Presidency. My gen- 
eral aversion to such a trip is overwhelmingly increased 
in this particular instance when I recall the afflictive dis- 
pensation which detains at the bedside of his sick wife 
another candidate for the Presidency." 

As the end of the season approached, Mr. Cleveland 
prepared to leave Gray Gables and return to New York. 
He had leased from his friend, Commodore Benedict, an 
attractive residence, 12 West 51st Street; and, during the 
summer, workmen had been busy remodeling and redeco- 
rating it. The Commodore had spared neither trouble 
nor expense in his effort to make it worthy of its new 
tenant. Early in October Mr. Cleveland moved in, mak- 
ing preparations as for a permanent home, and seeming 
almost as unconcerned regarding the election as did his 
baby daughter, of whom he wrote to Dr. Wilton Merle 
Smith: "Ruth lives her sweet little life in the midst of 
it all as unconsciously as though it were not history." 

Four nights before election Mr. Cleveland, contrary 
to his established rule, spoke at the last grand rally of the 
campaign, at Oakland Rink, Jersey City. There was a 
heavy fog abroad, and a steady drizzling rain was fall- 
ing; but the Democratic political clubs marched, never- 
theless. And when the rink doors were thrown open there 
was a rush of eager Democrats, who, within ten minutes, 
filled every seat in the vast structure. The appearance of 
the ex-President, accompanied by Senator McPherson, 



356 GROVER CLEVELAND 

ex-Senator William Brinkerhoff, and William F. Harrity, 
Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, caused 
a pandemonium of enthusiasm which became almost hys- 
teria as Mr. Cleveland rose to speak. With characteristic 
directness, he launched at once into his prime theme, tariff 
reform, but in a most un-Clevelandesque manner. The 
speech was rankly partisan throughout. Like any ward 
politician, he pointed with pride, he whitewashed, he 
coaxed, he cajoled. He painted the Democrats lily white 
and the Republicans a very inky black. He drew inspir- 
ing pictures of the good Democrats and horrific carica- 
tures of the wicked Republicans who would not let the 
Democrats do their duty. 

On election night, a few intimate friends gathered at 
the Cleveland home to receive the returns, which were 
favorable from the first. As results became more and 
more certain, more guests arrived. The throng in the 
street also increased in size and enthusiasm until, at mid- 
night, the ex-President yielded to the necessities of the 
occasion and addressed a few words to them. 

The definite announcement of victory was brought by 
Mrs. Whitney, whose husband had informed the Presi- 
dent of his defeat in 1888. She came into the drawing- 
room breathlessly radiant with excitement. The wires 
had just announced the final verdict and the long tension 
was broken. At once pandemonium reigned, but the 
President-elect was very quiet, weighed down with a sense 
of responsibility, and when his friends departed, at five 
A.M., they left behind a solemn victor. 

The full details of the astonishing results came by 
slow stages. Cleveland had carried every doubtful state, 
and his majority in New York was over 45,000. His total 
electoral vote was 277, an increase of 190 over that of 
1888, and of 59 over that of 1884. His popular vote of 



AN UNPRECEDENTED RESTORATION 357 

5,556,543 was 16,214 more than that of 1888, and 681,557 
more than that of 1884. There could be no doubt that it 
was, to a large extent, a personal victory. More than five 
and a half million Americans had expressed the desire 
that the leader, once rejected, should again lead the nation. 

"I care more for principle than for the Presidency," 
he had said to Richard Watson Gilder, and had added 
that he would "have the Presidency clean or not at all." 
He had put himself outside intimate party counsels. He 
had enraged Democratic spoilsmen by his persistent re- 
fusal to pay party debts with public offices. He had dis- 
appointed the reformers who insisted that reform should 
be the only consideration. But, incidentally, he had laid 
deep the foundations of his place in history. And as a 
consequence he had, as William H. Taft later ex- 
pressed it, "led his party to the greatest victory in its 
history." 

But victory meant not peace but a change of battle 
front, for Edward Murphy, Jr., promptly announced his 
desire to represent New York in the United States Sen- 
ate, an ambition abhorrent to the President-elect. Mr. 
Cleveland had known, of course, that Mr. Whitney's 
policy of conciliating the Tammany chieftains meant de- 
mands for compensation, the more difficult to resist the 
more effective the Tammany support should prove. But 
among all the horrible senatorial possibilities which he 
had discussed with his friends this one had never ap- 
peared. It seemed "too raw" even for Tammany, and 
he frankly said as much, first to Croker and Murphy, 
then to the general public. With that "eminent impar- 
tiality" to which his friend Bissell so often refers, he 
elaborated the reasons for his opposition, and entrusted 
them to the columns of the New York World: 



358 GROVER CLEVELAND 

"We need the best aid that we can procure . . . and 
the man who is selected as Senator from this state should 
be able, in the largest sense, to help the party fulfill its 
promises to the people. The people of our state who 
this year gave to the Democratic Electoral ticket a ma- 
jority so large as to indicate that they expect much from 
Democratic supremacy, are entitled to a Senator who will 
not only represent their interests and their principles, 
but will be able to advance and defend them. We need 
in the Senate a man of training and experience in public 
affairs as well as a man of clear ideas concerning the 
important questions which confront our party. It seems 
to me that the selection of Mr. Murphy does not indicate 
a disposition to choose for the Senatorship a man of the 
kind that is needed at this juncture, and I fear that this 
first manifestation of the power put in our hands will give 
rise to a feeling of public disappointment such as our 
party ought not to be called upon to face." 

The anti-Tammany press throughout the country also 
did what it could to defeat Murphy. The Philadelphia 
Ledger of December 30th declared: "If Mr. Murphy 
were elected Senator, the President would be expected to 
allow Mr. Hill and Mr. Murphy to divide the Federal 
offices of New York between themselves as spoils to their 
fellows, the Tammany henchmen. Mr. Murphy, like 
Mr. Hill, is an advocate of free silver, an enemy of civil 
service and of every other political reform of which Mr. 
Cleveland is the earnest, public-spirited supporter. If 
he refused to give the Federal offices to these two Sen- 
ators, they would use all the advantages the office of 
Senator confers upon them to embarrass and annoy him 
and to defeat the wholesome efforts of the Administration 
to secure and maintain good government." 



AN UNEXPECTED RESTORATION 359 

But Tammany Hall controlled the New York Legis- 
lature, in whose hands the Constitution then placed the 
choice of New York Senators, Croker and Hill con- 
trolled Tammany Hall, and Murphy became United 
States Senator. 



^11-1 



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